Hiccup Nights Remember Me Rewritten!
by Winder
Summary: They all thought they had defeated Pitch eight years ago. They had no idea that their fight was just beginning. They had no idea what Pitch really has in mind, the plan that has been in motion for hundreds upon hundreds of years. And poor little Jack has no idea that his waiting has been in vain. For Pitch has a secret weapon, and that Hiate will destroy them all.
1. Chapter 1

Hiccup Nights Remember Me

Chapter 1

Fools. That's what they all were. Arrogant fools who seemed to think that the world revolved around them. Fools who thought that they were untouchable. Fools who had no idea that he had been working for hundreds of years on his plans. Fools who were completely oblivious to the fact that the very world they stood on top of was slowly crumbling under their feet. They would never find out though, not until it was to late and they were slipping into the abyss he'd created.

They thought that his plan had failed. They thought that their last battle with him was eight years ago, fought in the forgettable town of Burgess, the home of Jack Frost. They had no idea it was just another small part of his plan. He'd almost destroyed them than, but it wasn't their time, and it wasn't his time to do so, he needed to wait, but he had managed to get what he wanted.

None of them were any the wiser to what that fight was really about. They had no idea what his true intentions were in those few days that he had them scurrying around.

He'd gotten what he wanted though. His mission had been a success.

They had no idea. They had failed.

A small chuckle slipped passed his lips as he leaned back further into his throne. The gleaming black stone would have made anyone else shift in discomfort, but he sat in bliss as he looked over his kingdom of darkness. The fearlings shifting in and out of the shadows seamlessly, confusing people as to where the shadows ended and they began, like wet sand on a beach blending in with the golden sand that rested further on the land. Sharp stones pierced the air, reaching out to the high ceiling like hands of desperate people trying to claw their way out of darkness. Tunnels lead every which way, disappearing into the rock walls and reappearing like an illusion, some leading the way to winding stairs that brought you nowhere and others travelling into the heart of the darkness.

It was beautiful, it was cold, unfeeling, heartless.

It was his.

Turning his golden gaze to the small body curled up in his lap he smiled as he gently ran his long fingers through the dark locks, untangling them as he went.

Wild, reckless, heartless, dark, beautiful, his.

This little fearling was his. His most prize possession. His greatest weapon. His gift from Mim himself.

It would be their downfall. It would be their destroyer. It was going to be the one to knock out the pillars of their kingdoms and bring them tumbling to the ground.

"Wake up my little nightmare." He purred, the body in his arms shifting as they made a low growl deep in their chest.

Not that Pitch could blame him, the poor thing barely got any sleep that wasn't racked by his own nightmares, monsters of his past taring at his mind when it was least protected. By memories he couldn't fully remember. By memories that Pitch wouldn't allow him to remember.

"Wake up little one." He said again, his voice soft as it drifted over the slightly pointed ears that flinched and twitched from the warmth of the air, an unnatural occurrence in the caves.

Slowly though black orbs squinted open, a soundless yawn stretching their lips to revel a mouthful of sharp teeth. Black clawed hands fanned out, shaking as they reached their limit before curling back, pressing sharply into the rough palms. Eye's opening halfway now the small creature looked up at Pitch through a daze as it sunk lower into the body it was pressed into,blinking up at the man with bottomless pits that no longer held the sanity they had lost hundreds of years before. The only light that seemed to come from it at all was a small glowing pendent that rested against the bare ash gray chest. Slowly rising and falling in time with the shallow breaths.

"Good morning." Pitch chuckled, stroking a hand over their matted black hair, his smile widening when a soft purr sounded from the back of their throat. "I have a job for you Hiate."

Tilting its head to the side it waited to hear its orders, instead of giving them straight away though the man nudged the boy off, until his bare feet were softly touching the ground. Dirt and grim from years of slinking around the caves and through shadows, almost made them nearly blend in with the rock they rested on as it crouched in front of its master. Pitch watched, always silently amazed when the mighty wings would flutter out and stretch wide, showing their pure power in one simple move without thought. Their inky blackness seeming to suck out the dim light that surrounded them and choke it till nothing was left.

How could Mim have created something so perfectly fitting to be a fearling and think with even a sliver of hope that it would be good? The boy was lost the moment Pitch crept out to steal his soul.

"I need you to deliver a message to our friends." He said as he sat up a little straighter, granting himself better access to the letters he had tucked away in the folds of his shirt.

The child like creature stood up, stretching its arms over its head as one of the wings fanned out to the side, easily knocking a group of fearlings off their path. They snarled at him, earning themselves a sharp swat from the strong tail that sent them tumbling off the raised rock that held the throne and hurtling to the ground. Their sharp cries pulled at the corners of the winged beasts lips as the purr sounded up once more.

"Hiate." Pitch said, drawing the empty eyes back to him as he held the letters out, their creamy white making the grey hue of his hands sharper. "Make sure that they get these."

Black orbs gazed at the letters lazily, slowly moving from its job to its master as they narrowed and thin lips pulled back to form a snarl. Pitch simply frowned, his own golden eyes looking over the creature before him with disinterest, earning himself a more venomous hiss as the tail twitched with an irritation he was all to familiar with.

"Fine."

The softness in his voice was gone, but it didn't seem to care as its body slowly relaxed.

Perfect it might have been. His greatest weapon and most powerful fearling, yes. With one fatal flaw...

With a single flick of his wrists the ground seemed to peel back, as if it was old paint under the intense heat of the sun. Two glowing green pools lit up the darkness, a hiss escaping from the floor as claws scrapped across the hard stones, setting off sparks that created a dull glow over the much bigger winged beast inside. One that Pitch should have feared, but knew he had no reason to. So long as he held the little one in the palm of his hand.

"Toothless." He said, his words just as empty and cold as the area surrounding them.

The beast within didn't say a word as it lifted itself out with one powerful beat of its great wings. He wasn't all that surprised by the silence though, this beast never spoke a word to him.

Even so he continued to watch as Toothless made his way over to the freely smiling creature. He seemed to waste no time in trapping the smaller male in his strong arms before muttering soft words in a language that Pitch had grown tired of hearing after all the years of keeping the two.

For so long he'd tried to get rid of the 'plus one', but their bond was a lot stronger than he had ever thought possible, and no matter what he seemed to do nothing worked. He couldn't warp Toothless' mind like he had the child's, but Toothless was loyal to a fault, and he would die before leaving the boy's side.

Holding out the letters again Pitch ignored the toxic orbs that followed his every move with malicious intent, and kept his own gaze on the creature that sniffed at the objects before snatching them between razor sharp claws.

"Good boy." He cooed as he ran his fingers through the dark hair again.

His hand barely got halfway before it was snatched tightly in the iron grip of the humanoid. Shifting his gaze over he didn't have to wait long before his little fearling was snarling again, this time at the other winged creature that he'd demanded the release of. Toothless let Pitch go, acting as if the very action had deemed his hand dirty enough to hack off and throw away. Really Pitch would be all to happy to help him do that.

"I believe I gave you a job Hiate."

**His names Hiccup.**

Toothless snarled, uttering the first words that he had spoken to Pitch in decades.

A deep chuckle worked its way out of his throat as he clasped his hands behind his back and gave the narrowed eyed gaze a smile filled with sharp teeth and sick humour.

"Oh please Toothless." He said, bringing up a hand to pat the others cheek with mock tenderness. "Hiccup's dead."

**Winder:** Okay guys, it's short but there you go. Although this seems like a pretty big change it's really not going to be all that different from the original but it will be able to follow the way that I wanted it to but couldn't make happen in the other one. I hope you guys like it. :)


	2. Chapter 2

Hiccup Nights Remember Me

Chapter 2

"I want to talk to Mim."

He wasted no time in beating around the bush as he walked up to North. The large man only seemed to sigh at him though as he sat back in his monstrous chair while he placed down his tiny tools.

"Jack, we have talked about this." He said, his voice heavy as he rubbed at his temples while the elf's brought up a new plate of cookies, obviously thinking the man was taking a break.

Rolling his eyes Jack rested his staff on his shoulder as he lightly shook his head.

"If shoving me out of a room constantly and telling me to go find something to do is talking about it than we really need to work on your communication skills." He huffed, walking up to the large table and briefly casting a glance at what was spread over its dented surface.

He felt a small stab in his heart when the marks and scratches over the otherwise gleaming surface reminded him of Hiccup's room and own work bench from long ago. He could still remember how much he use to watch Hiccup hunched over it working away at this and that on plans and blueprints that the white haired teen could never understand. He remembered he use to watch Hiccup a lot, amused by the littlest Viking who never gave up no matter what, and even had memories of after they had met of Hiccup tinkering away at this and that. It had been to long since he'd been able to make new memories instead of grasping on to the old ones like an infant missing its soother.

"I want to talk to Mim." He repeated.

"Can not be done Jack." North grumbled, sitting up tall in his chair as he stared down at the boy sternly.

Jack couldn't help but find it amazing that he could still tower over him even while he was seated. Be that as it may though he couldn't see why North wouldn't at least let him tell Mim what was going on. He had been promised to be able to see Hiccup the moment that he was a Guardian. It was eight years over due however and his patience was starting to wear thin.

"Why not?" The winter teen threw in, refusing to budge even as North pushed his chair back and stood to his full height, nearly casting the room into darkness as his large frame blocked out most of the light pouring in from the window.

"Jack. Man in Moon can not be contacted so easily, and only ever for special purpose. He is very busy."

"How is he busy?" Jack snapped, his grip on his crook tightening as the air dropped a few degrees.

Unnoticed by either of them the elves seemed to take their leave and slowly moved out of the room.

"He gets us to do everything for him! What could he possibly..!"

"Jack."

North didn't yell, he never had to, but Jack shut his mouth all the same, his glare never once letting up as he brought his hands back down to his sides, not noticing when he had raised them in the first place. The large man let out another long sigh, taking his seat again as he lowered his head to face the table, his shoulders slouching slightly as he intertwined his fingers and rested his forehead against them. They were both silent as the only noise drifted in from the work shop. The sounds of hammers hitting steal or gears grinding grating on Jack's nerves as he pressed his lips together and finally pulled his gaze away from them man who was like a father to him.

"What is it?"

His question was so soft that had Jack not been listening for any word he wouldn't have caught it. Instead though he turned his icy blue gaze back to North and felt his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth as another set of big blues locked with his.

"What is that you must speak with to Mim?"

He could feel his breath get caught in his throat, his body seeming to tense while his staff shook in the grip that he had around it.

His mind couldn't help but flash back to a time a few years ago, his first Christmas as a Guardian actually, and how much he'd worked really hard to keep his clean slate and get into the good books that year. When Hiccup hadn't shown up the moment, or even a few hours, days, weeks, or months later he'd decided to go with a new plan. He'd made his Christmas list, and it contained only one thing, or really spirit. He still remembered how he'd slipped it among North's countless letters and than waited for the day to come. Remembering North coming to his room when everyone else was asleep and handing him the latter back to him still hurt more than he cared to admit. Being told that he should stay away from Hiccup and just get over him and find someone new felt like being stabbed in the chest with a dull tipped blade.

He knew that North knew Hiccup. He knew that North and Hiccup hadn't been on the best terms with each other when they had been together, and he knew that North had known that Hiccup left. All that being said though he also knew that none of them knew why. He'd never shown any of them the letter, after Hiccup had left him at North's. He'd simply read it and took off. Although he did have a suspicion that Bunny had either read it or had known about it but even so he hadn't said a word to nearly any of them for over two hundred years. He also knew that Mim hadn't bothered to tell any of them about Hiccup's new position, or Toothless for that matter and once when he had brought it up with Tooth he had found out that shortly after they had left Toothless had contacted her briefly and called it off with no other words or reasons other than saying that he was sorry.

Jack bit down on his lip for a moment as he tried to decide what he was going to say to North. He had it all planned for Mim, well most of it anyways, but he had no idea how he was supposed to tell the man who had been watching him for the last eight years that he wanted to demand that Mim allow him and Hiccup to be together again. North was no doubt going to object the very idea of it, after all, the last time anyone had seen him Hiccup was part fearling. As much as Mim had tried to help him with it Jack could still remember how much the boy had struggled to control it and how much it had messed with his mind. Kids were Jack's job now, he was a Guardian after all, they were ordered to get rid of any fearlings that they found. He didn't want North to claim that Hiccup wasn't safe enough to be around the children and have him taken down like one of Pitch's old nightmares that they still found on occasion.

North didn't say a word throughout the whole of the silence. He just continued staring at the boy while Jack allowed himself to battle things out in his mind.

There was no way that he could tell what Hiccup was like now. For years he had been left wondering what had happened to the once clever and sharp tongued boy he'd grown to fall in love with, but he really had no idea if Hiccup was even the same. It wouldn't have matter though, if Hiccup was still just like he use to be, just waiting for Jack while him and Toothless did their time, or if he'd gone mad and turned to the darker part of his thoughts. Jack would find a way to help him and bring him back, he would always be there for Hiccup, through everything.

He was getting ahead of himself though, first he actually needed to see the boy again, and he could only do that by talking to Mim apparently.

Throwing a quick glance around the room Jack decided that it was going to be pointless talking to North. He was a good man and a phenomenal Guardian and father figure, but he was also so paranoid and a little bit to protective at times. Finally his eyes seemed to land on what he was looking for and he couldn't stop the smallest of smirks from crawling across his lips at the sight of it.

The large male seemed to catch on to what his plan was though as his body seemed to tense up almost unnaturally before he turned a sharp gaze back to the other who was already bouncing back and forth on the balls of his feet.

"Jack no." He said, slowly coming to a stand as if he thought moving to fast would startle the younger spirit.

"Betcha you can't catch me." Jack teased back as a childish glint lighting up his eyes.

Not even a second later and they both bolted towards the unsuspecting object.

North was much larger, and had way longer strides, but Jack was smaller and able to dart in between the man and his target with ease, quickly snatching it up with nimble fingers before he vaulted himself in the air and flipped himself over the man's head. By the time he'd landed on the ground again North had turned on him, many years of fighting experience coming in handy as he already started to make a move towards the much smaller spirit.

Jack couldn't stop the small meep from slipping passed his lips, just managing to duck underneath the others out stretched hands as he sprinted over to the closed door. Throwing it open without a moment to spare he almost crashed into Phil, side spinning the large yeti as he quickly spit out an apology. North didn't seem so lucky as he ran smack dab into the creature that rivaled his own size and Jack secretly thanked whoever Fate was as he watched them fall to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

"Jack!" North yelled out, making the boy jump as he remembered just what he was supposed to be doing.

"Sorry North!" Jack called back, not wasting much time on it as he shook the snow globe in his hands. "Take me to Mim." He whispered softly to it.

Throwing it over the railing Jack jumped with it and couldn't help but let out a victorious whoop that was quickly followed by North's cries of rage as he disappeared into the swirling vortex.

(Thanks Dad I'm pretty impressed with myself too!)

"Hiate!" Abyss exclaimed, unable to keep the large smile from his face as he watched the gray skinned male bounce up to him. "How have you been?"

His response was a happy sounding purr as the fearling creature circled around him, sniffing him here and there as he tried to find where the sweet treats were hidden. Abyss simply chuckled openly at him before catching the boy's attention with a task, waving his finger back and forth and unable to stop himself from snickering as Hiate's whole head moved along to watch the single digit.

"Na ah, you have to give me something first remember?" He said, earning a small chirp before closed lips were placed upon his cheek followed quickly by him pulling back and waiting expectantly for his prize.

With a roll of his eyes Abyss lifted his hands up and allowed the dark like liquid to pool in his palms. Thick and slightly congealed he carefully held back a gag as the matter in his hands really reminded the holder to much of liquid asphalt. He didn't show his normal disgust at holding the thoughts as the creature's eyes before him lit up and his mouth opened up to a wide smile.

"All yours." Abyss said, not wasting another second before he dropped the heavy mass into the others out stretched thin fingers.

Hiate let out a pleased yowl before shooting himself to the other side of the room and greedily gulping down his spoils. Abyss couldn't help but grimace at the thought of actually eating that stuff, but quickly wiped it from his mind when the next spirit showed up in his area.

**You shouldn't do that.**

Toothless grumble, his wings carefully folding as his gaze seemed torn between both the son of Grimm and his partner.

**You know he doesn't understand.**

"Than who's it hurting?" Abyss shot back, already tired of the others presence but knowing it was necessary. After all he'd tried having full length conversations with Hiate before. Although the boy seemed to understand some of what he was saying it consisted mostly of head tilts and almost owlishly blinking. "What does Pitch want now?" He asked as he crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head slightly forward while keeping his chin up.

**Like he would ever tell me.**

Toothless growled, his voice leaning closer and closer to its dragon self before he walked over to the fearling who was now licking its fingers clean.

**Hiccup.**

He muttered softly as he stood by the boy's side.

The name didn't catch the others attention however as he continued to dig through his little treat. Abyss watched as the dragon's face fell, his wings drooping even lower as he turned his gaze away from the other before him.

**Hiate.**

That name caught the boy's attention this time as his gaze snapped up to Toothless, a content purr vibrating from his chest as he pressed his head against the hand that Toothless held out before his dark eyes were finally drawn to his face.

**Don't you have something for Abyss from Pitch?**

He asked, his voice suddenly seeming to be distant as the fearling rocked to his feet and pulled a letter out of the frayed pocket of his pants.

Abyss rolled his eyes at the sight of the letter but took it anyways as it was handed to him. He didn't even bother looking at it and instead just flicked it into the fire, turning back to his work as Hiate just stared after where the paper had disappeared.

**He's not going to appreciate that.**

Toothless muttered after a moment as the smaller male crouched down and raised a finger to the flames, yowling gleefully when some licked the tips of his fingers.

Both Abyss and Toothless were quick to grab him before he could stick his fingers any closer.

"Well you can tell Pitch that all of this is really starting to piss me off. I already gave him my help, but now I've paid my dept and that's it. I'm not doing anything else for him."

**Don't explain yourself to me.**

Toothless said as he grabbed both of the boy's wrists and pulled them into his chest to keep them from reaching out to the flames again.

**I was just stating a fact. I don't really care. You can tell him that yourself.**

Abyss simply scoffed with a roll of his eyes. Like he really wanted to see the guy again. He'd had to interact with Pitch enough as it was, fear and death occasionally came hand in hand after all, but he preferred to keep their meetings strictly on a 'had to have' basic. There was noway that he was going out and doing anything else for the creep.

Looking down at Hiate when he started to play with his hands, seeing how far he could reach them out before they were pulled back again, he couldn't help but smile as he ruffled the boy's hair. He was glad that Toothless' hands were occupied and couldn't reach out to whack his hands away for once.

"Pitch is smart." He finally said, only pulling back when he felt satisfied as Hiate closed his eyes in a happy purr. "He'll figure it out I'm sure."

Toothless said nothing, choosing instead to watch him with those unsettling green eyes of his as Abyss finally brought his own dark gaze up to look at the much taller male.

"You ever thought of taking him away?" He muttered, shifting back to give the two some room.

It was a conversation neither of them had ever had out loud before, or at least, not so bluntly. It was something Abyss had always wondered though, Toothless hated Pitch, but he was extremely loyal to Hiate. In fact if he looked back far enough he was sure he could almost remember a time when their relationship had been very different than what it was today, but he could never understand why Toothless would keep them with Pitch. He hated Pitch as much as Abyss did, he hated what he had accidentally told Abyss once about what Pitch had done to the small fearling. On certain days when he was to tired to keep up a facade he would grumble about finding a way to get them both out. In all of his years knowing and watching them though Abyss had never seen him make one move to do so.

**And where would I bring him?**

Toothless asked after a moment as his eyes trailed down to the flames.

**He's lost his mind Abyss. He's a monster in the eyes of all the other spirits, nothing more than one of Pitch's fearlings that existed to be destroyed. As much as I hate it, this is the safest place for him.**

"What about Mim, I thought..."

**Don't even say it!**

Toothless snarled, his powerful wings flaring out as if they were an extension of his rage.

**The last thing I need is for his lunar council to step in. As long as he thinks we're still doing our job than we're fine.**

"No, you're fine." Abyss grumbled motioning his hand to the smaller male who had turned his attention back to the fire, finally seeming still as he leaned back into the hybrid. "Do you really think this is anyway for him to continue living?"

**Right now I just want to keep him alive. I'm still trying to figure out how to get his mind back.**

Toothless admitted while he dropped his chin to rest gently on the creatures head, drawing their attention upwards as they tilted their head back.

A soft coo vibrated from Hiate's throat, seeming to be trying to sooth the others distress. Abyss frowned however when instead of helping, the sound made Toothless' breath catch and his eyes gloss over. The taller male ducked his head for a moment, placing his forehead on the curve of the smaller fearlings shoulder while Hiate's lips twitch down deeper before his dark eyes glanced over to Abyss in question. He didn't stare at him long before he turned his head back to face Toothless and gently bumped his nose against his cheek. Another coo was followed by a gasping breath and shaking shoulders at which point Abyss turned away from and respectfully ignored.

"Tell Pitch I'm done with his dirty work." He mutter, bringing their conversation back to what it once was and pretending he didn't hear the muffled sobs of the strong warrior as his eyes gazed into the swirl of human lives.

**Winder:** And the second chapter. Sorry about the long wait guys. :P Been busy working on something that I will tell you about after Christmas. Anyways I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thanks for reading. :D **MickeyandMinnieM:** Why thank you Hun. :) I hope you continue to enjoy it and thanks for reading. :D **When-Fanfics-Gives-You-Lemons:** I don't even know. :p but I've always loved the idea of fearling Hiccup losing his mind and having to be brought back with Jack and so I thought 'why not?' :) Especially since I hate the original with utter loathing. Xp Sorry if it's not your cup of tea though bud. :( **Faisyah865:** (Beings back to life) Your name is Jack Frost. **Malica15:** Thank you. :) Ya I know about the grammar and what not! DX Seems no matter how hard I try there's always something, but alsa, maybe it would be a good idea to finally get a Beta reader eh? :p Might help with the updates too! XD Thanks for Reading and reviewing Bud. :) **Twilight:** Hey good to hear from ya! Hey so I was wondering if there was anyway it would be possible to maybe have you as my Beta reader? I just love the way that you point out this and that an I feel like if I had any questions about what was wrong with it or some ideas I had you'd be able to help me point out the flaws or come up with something better. If not than that's cool too. :) Thanks for review though! :D **Lord Shiranui:** Thank you Bud! :D **BookAddict67:** Thanks for sticking with it even though it's not much of your cup of tea. I really do appreciate it. :) Although since a lot of people seemed to like the first one I might finish it anyways some time and than just have it as a 'you can have this version', or 'you can have version two'. Might be a good idea. :) **Hiccup Overland:** Thank you! And wow! That's quiet a bit of a reread! XD Sorry for all of the mistakes in the first one! DX I really should go back and polish it up eh? **TheQuietSongbird:** ...I am so sorry... Please forgive me. :( **Teegra123:** :) I actually can't wait for Jack and Hiccup to meet for that reason. It's gonna be fun. :) **Pantless Page:** Punz is still in this bless her heart! XD But she only ever talks to Toothless in this one. :) Not Hiccup for obvious reasons I suppose. As for the love triangle hm... I'm not so sure yet. There will still be Jamie in love with Jack though, and Abyss and Jamie is going to be the end result but ya know, Hic's a little... ya, at the moment. :)P **SidheWolf5:** Why thank you. :) I'm glad that you like them both so far. :D **AlexJohnD:** Whoa bud, weirdest thing happened. I was on DA looking at a journal one of my fav artist posted and lo and behold you had comment on their page. You like ShadowPirateMonkey Too! XD Your cosplays are awesome by the way. :D Was gonna send you out a note but I didn't want to seem creepy, although I guess messaging it here is basically the same thing but you know. Anyways, ya, I always like playing with darkish themes in my head and decide that I'd get one down for once. :)P They're surprisingly fun actually. :) **Everyone who read:** Thanks so much for reading guys! I hope you enjoyed it :D


	3. Chapter 3

Hiccup Nights Remember Me

Chapter 3

"Did they get my message?"

Toothless bite back on his tongue as he stopped a fair distance away from the man, face scrunching up as Hiccup bounded before him, purring as he jumped back on Pitch's lap. Pitch, on the other hand, mostly ignored the boy, briefly running his fingers through the spirit's dark hair until Hiccup was settled,all the while keeping his gaze locked with the forest green orbs. Toothless could almost feel his skin crawl at the sight of it, but chose not to say anything as he dropped his eyes from gold to the dirt covered gray of the boy in the man's hold.

"I'll take that as a yes," Pitch said, never really expecting Toothless to answer any of his questions as he turned his attention to the boy curled up with him who already had his eyes closed in an attempt to get to sleep. "I'm going to be stepping out for a few hours, it could turn to days if some problems arise," the man said offhandedly as he used one of his sharp fingers to scratch behind the boy's ear earning himself a louder purr while Toothless felt his stomach twist sharply. "In my absence I want you two to do your job."

Without a word more he got to his feet, his face retaining a neutral expression as he jostled the body from its place across his lap. The boy let out a sharp screech and Toothless yelped as he took a lunge forward. He could still feel his heart hammering in his chest even when he noticed that the boy had landed on his hands and feet just fine, but he still finished running up to his old friend before he knelt down by him and quickly scanned him over just to make sure.

Pitch simply side-stepped them as he started making his way to the mouth of the cave, not paying much mind to the venomous hiss and narrowed gaze of the angry humanoid.

"I don't want that stupid moon brat bothering with my plans yet."

Toothless didn't care to listen to him anymore as he wrapped the now frowning child in his arms, holding him tightly to his chest. The beat of his heart, however frantic it may have been, seemed to help calm the boy as his purring started back up again and he nuzzled into Toothless chest in comfort. Sighing in relief, Toothless dropped his forehead against the others and bit down on his lip as he wondered just how much more of this he was going to be able to take before he was going to lose his mind as well.

He needed help, but he had no idea who to go to. He'd tried once before - many, many years ago - almost right when it had happened, in fact. He just asked for even the smallest amount of help, and he got nothing in return other than a scar that stretched across his chest from the bite of a blade. He received nothing more for his pleas other than the the cold stares of the ancient spirits and curses placed on his head.

"You better head out now, Toothless," Pitch said from the mouth of one of the many cave openings. "The moon will be up soon."

Reluctantly, Toothless pulled himself away from the boy, letting out a small whine that sounded more like a low growl as he bumped their foreheads together softly. Hiccup, however, stretched his wings out and gave a soft yowl, seeming to enjoy the idea of being able to be outside again rather than in the darkness of the caves. Seeing how happy the boy got over something so simply was enough to pull a smile to Toothless' lips and break his heart in one swipe, his eyes nearly glossing over as he watched the small male crouch lowly on the ground ready to take to the air. He remembered a time when he use to be the more animal like of the two. A time when Hiccup had been so clever and curious about how everything worked.

He missed that child more and more with every passing hour. This one was still Hiccup though, and he would let the world burn before he would allow anyone to hurt him.

**Come on, Bud,**

Toothless sighed as he got to his feet, forcing his lips to twitch upwards if only for the other. **Let's go do our job.**

(For the dancing and the dreaming)

Really, he had no idea what he'd thought that the Moon was supposed to look like, but this was not it. Maybe he'd just watched way too much of the stuff on TV about the Moon. Maybe he just forgot that what humans thought it was, and what it really was, wasn't what it was like at all.

This though? This was not something he'd ever thought that he'd see for someone who had created the Guardians of Childhood.

He felt like he'd just walked into a battle zone. As if Moony was locked and ready for an all out war. Sharp, jagged rocks blocked many of the crater openings around the area he'd landed in. There were scorch marks burned into the very surface and deep scars that ran into the rock, looking as if some kind of monster had torn at it. A few of the tall mountains seemed to have crumbled - or perhaps they had been knocked off, he couldn't really tell - but the remains of them were scattered around their base. Some even fell so far as a few feet from where Jack was standing, nearly towering over him in height even though they were former shadows of their old selves.

When he went to take a step, he jerked back, getting his crook to the ready when his foot knocked against something and sent it rolling away. His narrowed graze grew wide when he saw that it was a spear with a moon tipped blade. Crouching down, he poked at it, feeling no magic whatsoever emanating from the weapon at all. As his eyes trailed down the smooth, golden carved handle his brows raised when ocean blue took in the sight of it cleanly cut down the middle. These weapons were made by Moony himself. For someone to be able to break it like this...

Raising his gaze from the single weapon, he could feel his mouth slid open when he saw all kinds of weapons scattered around the area - so many that he was surprised that he'd never noticed them till just that moment. Swords, axes, short swords, spears, shields, they were thrown this way and that, with tares, burns and giant dents or gashes. Jack could do nothing but stand there, his mind too stunned to do anything other than stare out at the mass of violent evidence.

Jack had expected this place to be bright whenever he saw it from Earth. He had thought that it would have been clean and spotless, a trashed battle field was the last thing he'd thought that he would see. Looking down at the place where the weapon had been kicked from, however, he felt his brows draw together when he noticed that it left a clean line in the place where it had sat for so long. That made no sense, though. Why would Mim just let all of this stuff sit around here long enough to collect dust? How long ago had this happened?

A gust of wind, barely noticeable enough to catch anyone's attention, caressed Jack's back. He would have just brushed it off, if not for the huge shadow that was cast over him moments later. Jumping to his feet, he spun around on his heels, getting his staff at the ready once again as he stared up at what had snuck up on him. His stance went slack as his eyes went wide while he just stared at the winged beast before him.

It was a mammoth sized moth the color of the finest silvers and whites of the earth. It's huge wings were wide spread, showing off the impressive patterns that helped it to blend into the many craters and shadows of the ship it was a part of. It's size was easily comparable to that of a large school bus, and that wasn't including its wings at all. The teeth were what really drew Jack in, though. He never knew that they had teeth - whenever he'd heard anyone mention stories about the lunar moths that lived with Mim, they never once spoke about the rows upon rows of sharp teeth that they seemed to posses. It was as if he was staring at a flying shark rather than an over sized insect.

Maybe the oddest thing about the creature, though, was the fact that upon its back there seemed to be a beam of light that sat a top it. It was strange. It was as if it was a solid figure, but at the same time it seemed to flicker and sputter as if it was a candle in the wind. He found himself squinting at it, trying to see if he could make out a clearer shape of whatever it was, but he didn't get long before it lunge down from where it sat and aimed itself straight for him.

Darting back, he barely managed to doge the attack before it landed right in the place he'd been standing, a bit of the solid rock cracking upon the impact it made.

"Whoa, wait!" Jack shouted as he threw his hands out, his staff pointed downwards to further show his surrender. "I'm not here to cause trouble!"

Whatever it was didn't listen to him, though. Jumping at him again, Jack almost didn't have time to move before it swiped passed him. He just managed to spin around fast enough, bring up his staff with him to block the weapon that he didn't even realize the thing had. Upon closer inspection, however, he felt his eyes blew wide when he realized that this was a moonbeam.

Mim apparently used them in order to help send his messages to spirits on earth when he needed to. They always seemed like curious little things whenever Jack had caught a glimpse of them from a far, but they rarely ever went to earth anymore. Although Jack could never figure out why, he was starting to guess that maybe it had something to do with what this place looked like.

The problem with the moon beams, though, was that they didn't really have a solid shape. They shifted from one form to another. They could be in and out of places before you could even think of blinking. Which was just his luck considering that this one was armed and saw him as a threat.

"Wait, I'm not here to hurt you!" Jack growled out as he twisted the crook, hooking the end of it on their weapon to keep it in place. "I just want to talk to Mim."

It still wasn't listening, much to Jack's dismay, and he barely had time to block the next attack before it had shoved him to the ground. Grunting when his back slammed into the hard rock, he almost choked at all of the dust that had been disturbed by his sudden impact and lifted to the air in retaliation. Too caught up in his choking fit, he didn't realize the blunt of the staff coming down to stab into his chest until it was forcing the air out of his frozen lungs.

Wrapping his hands around the end of it tightly to keep it from digging in anymore, he glared up at the bright light, his eyes squinting against the harshness of it. Closing his eyes tightly instead, a sharp hiss passed his lips as he struggled to push the object away from him. When the beam growled and shoved down harder, Jack couldn't bite back on the yelp as it stabbed down painfully into his sternum.

Without giving it much thought, Jack let out a yell, his grip tightening again, even more so this time, and the creature was blasted back by a wall of ice. Throwing his opponents weapon far away, he quickly rolled to his feet, scooping his fallen staff off the ground and getting back into position before the beam could even get back on its feet again.

Not wanting to stick around, Jack took to the air, slipping passed the large lunar moth as he tried to find another place to go. The only entrance seemed to be blocked, which was a slight problem, but he didn't spend too long mourning over it as he left the area, trying to find another place he could slip into the moon-shaped ship. Just as he was about to turn around another mountain, he slammed into another lunar moth.

When he went to jerk back, he ran into yet another moth, the one from before that he'd just finish running away from. Just his luck, too, the same beam seemed to be sitting atop of it yet again, recovering from the blast that Jack put him through.

"Aw shi-"

He couldn't even finish that sentence before they were both on him. One came up from behind, holding the long handle of its spear across his throat and forcing him to gasp for air. The other swooped in from the top, ripping Jack's own weapon out of his hands, and forcing him to shut his eyes with its blinding light. Growling out in aggravation, he swung out one of his arms wildly, trying to hit the one before him while his other hand tried to keep the long stick from digging into his neck anymore.

Thankfully, they only held him like this for a mere few seconds, but it was still enough that - when they let go - he fell to his knees gasping for air and grabbing at his throat. Little dots of red and white danced in the corner of his vision, something he tried to blink away while he got to his feet, looking around to see if they had dropped his staff as well.

He couldn't stop himself from feeling a little bit vulnerable when he realized that it was no where around him and they must have still had it.

Squinting his eyes back up at them, he let out a small groan to see that there was now another lunar moth, this one seeming to be the biggest as it forced both of the others back when it came between them with just its size alone.

"Great," Jack muttered, bringing his hands up, ready to fight it off with his fists if he had to.

"Jack Frost."

Blinking at the sound of the gentle voice Jack watched as the moth landed and a little round man peered out from over its head.

"Now what would you be doing here, my boy?"

Was this Mim? Jack had no idea what he'd thought the guy would look like, but a tiny round, child faced man certainly wasn't what he'd been ready for. Looking around the area to see if maybe someone else was going to be popping out of no where, he turned his attention back to the man only when he was sure they weren't.

"I was, um, I was hoping that I could talk to Mim?" It came out sounding more like a question than he was hoping it would, but there was no going back now as the round man slid down from the giant of a winged beast and landed softly on the ground.

"Well, here I am," Mim chuckled, his voice sounding soft and velvety on the ears. Even with how nice it sounded, however, Jack couldn't help but take a step back as his shoulders hunched up slightly. "Although I must say that normally spirits aren't supposed to come to me unless I call for them."

"Yeah," the white haired teen said slowly as his hands grasped at the air weakly, not use to being empty handed, "so I was told."

The little man said nothing, he just continued to smile in that soft way of his that set Jack's nerves on end. He had no idea what it was about this guy that was making him feel so defensive, but whatever it was, he didn't like it, and he wished for nothing more than to have his staff if only to feel a little bit more at ease.

"I assume," Mim continued, apparently seeing that Jack wasn't going to fill him in as to why he was here, "that you've come to talk about something?"

Looking around the area again, Jack felt his shoulders hunch a little bit more when his eyes scanned over the lunar moths and beams clinging to the stones of the moons surface, each of them watching him with bright black eyes that seemed to be unblinking. For a man of the children, this place was really creeping him out.

"I want to know where Hiccup is."

Jack was done beating around the bush. He didn't care much about the state this place was in. He didn't care about the battles that Mim had gone through years ago, or the fact that he felt the need to keep this place tightly guarded at all times. He just wanted what he was promised, and that was to be reunited with the boy he had been separated from years before.

"You told him that after I found out why I was here we were allowed to be together again," Jack said, his mind forgetting about everything and everyone else as he turned to the spirit he'd really come to get answers from.

"It's been over eight years since then."

At his words, the bald man only frowned, his eyes turning to the ground for a moment as his arms crossed behind his back.

"Ah, yes," he said slowly, making a scowl come to Jack's face at his tone. "I was wondering how much longer it was going to be before this came up."

"You were waiting for this?" Jack questioned, a single brow raising as he moved to the side when the man came closer.

"Preparing for it, more likely," Mim admitted, turning his gaze back up to the much younger spirit as his lips stayed pulled down in a frown. "I've given many years on how I would have this conversation with you."

"Than why'd you wait so long?" Jack muttered, not wanting to hear any of the excuses that the man was going to give.

He watched as Mim pressed his lips into a thin line, seeming as if he still needed more time to think about his choice of words before he would bother to open his mouth to speak.

"Listen, Jack," Mim said slowly, finally waving a hand to the moths and beams that were still hanging around the area, listening in on their every word and ready to strike if he so wished. "There's a problem with what you were promised."

Not liking the sound of that one bit, Jack held back on anything he could have said while he watched as one of the beams dropped his staff into the man's hand.

"If I could, I would love to do nothing more than to reunite you two together."

"Then why don't you?" Jack hissed, unable to help himself from doing so.

He was just so tired of this. Hadn't he been through enough? Hadn't he had to wait long enough? Why couldn't he just know where Hiccup was? Why couldn't he just be with the one who had stolen his heart all those years ago? Why did he have to wait any longer? Why did everyone seem hell bent on keeping them away from each other?

Mim only frowned even deeper, his hand halting as he went to had the staff back.

"I haven't found him yet, Jack."

Both of them stood there in a silence so thick that Jack could have sworn it was crushing him. He couldn't think of anything to say as he just stood there, staring at the little man before him. Jack couldn't even figure out what to feel, there was just way too many things at once that the only thing he could show outwardly was a blank slate.

What did Mim mean he hasn't found him yet? Where the hell did he go off to? He could see the whole goddamn planet from up here and he had countless amounts of spirits in every place one could imagine. How could it have been possible for him to lose someone that flew around with a giant dragon humanoid?

"What?"

It was all he could think to say, considering the bomb that was just dropped on him, though he figured that it was a good enough response.

At his obvious confusion, Mim let out a long sigh as he handed the boy back his staff.

"I have a confession to make, Jack," he said, his words seeming thick and heavy on his tongue as he took a step away from the boy, giving him his space. "He's, he's not the same anymore," the little man explained, shaking his head while he turned away just the slightest. "The Hiccup you knew is gone, and I'm afraid that you won't ever get him back."

"What happened to him?"

Mim simply shook his head, his brows drawing together while Jack tried to figure out what was going on in his mind.

Hiccup was gone? What did that even mean? He wasn't dead. He had a feeling that if Hiccup had died Mim would have at least told Jack that. If it wasn't death, than what could it have been? What could have made Hiccup change so much over the years that not even the thought of them getting back together would manage to get him to appear?

"Do you remember how I told you two that you had to stay away from one another? At least until you found yourself?" Mim asked suddenly, his question seeming to come out of nowhere and interrupt Jack's thoughts.

The white haired teen merely nodded his head, his eyes narrowed as that night moved back into his mind as clear as a still lake. He remembered that day all to well. Sometimes it was even the only thing that he was able to think about when he was drifting through the world, countless times on the edge of giving up. Rereading that letter still cut into his heart like a dull knife to this moment.

"Ya."

His answer was short, and lacked any formality that he was sure the King of Spirits was use to, but he couldn't care less. Especially not with the look that Mim was giving him now.

"Jack," he started slowly taking a few more steps back before he turned his back on the boy, "walk with me."

He was frozen in place for a moment. Too confused by the sudden command to be able to do much of anything other than to just stare after the man's back as he walked away. After a moment, his body seemed to move on it's own, his feet moving forward without any of his knowledge, and his long strides bringing him to Mim's side in seconds. Dropping his staff against his shoulder, he allowed the frown to spread over his face as he waited for the man to continue talking.

"You see, Jack, I needed you to be motivated, and Hiccup was the best way to go about it."

With that Jack just scoffed, giving an eye roll as Mim pressed his lips together tightly.

"With Hiccup it wasn't the same thing," he said, placing his hands behind his back as he lifted his chin. "I took away his memories."

Jack came to a halt. His hand landed on the man's small shoulder, bringing him to a sudden stop as he turned him around forcefully.

"You did what?" His voice came out in a low hiss, so low in fact he would have been impressed that the man even heard him if he wasn't so pissed.

Mim showed no signs of feeling threatened, though. He just watched the boy with his deep eyes. His gaze seeming to pity the boy before him. Jack didn't want pity, however, he was sick of it. He wanted his answers, ones that should have been given to him years and years ago.

"You took his memories and than just let him go?" he growled out, not paying any mind to the moths and beams that were drawing closer to the two. "What were you thinking?"

"Jack, you don't..."

"Don't give me a word of your bullshit!" the winter prince snapped, tightening his hold on the man's shoulder enough to make him winch the slightest. "You've put me through hell! The least you could do is give me answers."

Everything became still again. The moths and beams in still animation as they waited for the signal to attack the aggressive spirit in their presence. Mim never gave it. Instead, he just took in a deep breath as he dropped his hands to the side.

"I didn't want him to have to suffer through the years, Jack," he said softly. "I couldn't trust him not to go to you at some point, he cared for you too much to be able to stay away for long, no matter what the consequences for himself would have been. I also didn't want to have him be forced to watch as his loved ones grew old and faded to time as he stayed young forever. Immorality can sometimes be more of a curse than a blessing when our loved ones don't share the same gift, young one," Mim explained.

With every word he spoke, however, Jack found himself lessening his grip. His hand went slack until it simply fell off of Mim's shoulder and back to his side. The moths backed off as his shoulders slouched forward in defeat. Even the beams dimmed their harsh light at his sudden dive in aggression.

"He doesn't remember me?" His voice was nearly a whisper, barely loud enough for his own ears to hear as the thought hit home.

Hiccup, his Hiccup. His sass bucket of a stubborn Viking, remembered nothing of his past life. He remembered nothing of what had happened before he met Jack, nothing about what had happened after he met Jack. If Jack met him again, was he going to be the same? Was he still going to have that snarky little attitude that Jack couldn't help but find so adorable to snicker at? Would he still be tinkering away at inventions that Jack couldn't even being to understand even to this day? Was there going to be anything left of the boy he'd known and loved?

"You can still give them back, right?"

Turning bright blue orbs back to the pale face, he could almost feel his heart hammering into his chest at the thought that maybe, just maybe, there was some hope left. Hiccup could get back his memories. Mim had just said he took them away, he didn't say anything about getting rid of them. Even Jack had managed to get his teeth back after he'd found out where they were. Maybe they could do the same thing for Hiccup.

"I'm afraid it won't be that easy, Jack," Mim said as he moved forward once more. "You see, I left them alone for a few years."

Jack found himself raising his brows as he followed after the man again, pushing off the ground and landing softly next to him.

"I gave them a large job, and I knew it would take a few years for them to get everything sorted out and even longer to form a pattern before things would run smoothly," Mim explained while Jack just nodded absently. "I thought nothing of it when I didn't hear from them at all, so I had no idea what had happened."

Jack could feel his stomach twist as he wondered what the next words out of the man's mouth would be. Just what had Hiccup been going through while he'd been running around trying to find out what he was supposed to do?

"I thought they were fine," Mim continued after a pause that was too long for Jack's liking. "They had been doing their job and I had Rapunzel send me yearly reports on the list of their accomplishments. However, about fourteen years after I'd given them their position, they both ended up coming to a yearly meeting here that use to be held but has, since that time, never happened since," Mim explained while Jack just tried to piece together what he was being told.

"They weren't supposed to be there. Only a few Spirits from each section were needed to go over the overall year and check on the different problems and ideas as well as plans for the future. They showed up anyways, though, and it was the first time I had seen them since I sent them off."

Mim came to a slow stop, and Jack couldn't help but be a little confused when he saw that they were back at the part that looked like a battle zone.

"This was the out come of their visit."

Jack felt his eyes shoot wide open as his head quickly snapped back to face the man who was waving to the area in front of them, a forlorn look set across his features.

"Toothless had just crashed in, begging for help from anyone on Hiccup's behalf, for you see, Jack, Hiccup had lost."

Mim dropped his gaze, his head tilted down as Jack felt his mouth go dry. With a sigh the man went on.

"The Fearling poison had taken over."

Jack felt his eyes grow wide as his mouth slipped open, his heart slammed against his rib cage as he shook his head. Hiccup couldn't have lost to that. Jack had watched him fight it every moment that he was with him. He'd watched the boy push the darkness back countless times with great success. When Hiccup had come back, he'd even said that it was getting better, that it wasn't nearly as bad as it use to be when he had been human. How could he have lost?

"He had seemed harmless enough, at first," Mim said, his attention moving to the layer of dust covered weapons. "But many of the others didn't trust him," he continued, drawing Jack's attention away from his own thoughts and back to Mim's words. "I don't quiet recall what happened after that, Jack," Mim admitted, his eyes seeming to lose their focus as they glossed over with the memories of the past. "But one thing lead to another, and before anyone knew what was happening Toothless was bleeding, and Hiccup attacked in a fit of rage."

At this the man had gone visibly pale, his very face looking much older than it had since Jack had come in. Even his shoulders started to shake, and he clasped his hands behind his back in an attempt to hide the fact that they were shaking, too.

"I always assumed that things would have been alright if someone hadn't attacked Toothless. I always wish I could just go back to that day," he said, his voice barely above a whisper as he forced the words out. "I would have paid more attention, and stopped it before anyone could have landed a hand on each other. He's was just trying to protect his friend, Jack, I know this," Mim said as he drew the boy's bright blue gaze to his own. "But sadly it didn't end in any way I could have even thought possible."

A heavy air of silence hung over them then, hanging on by the thinnest thread ever seen and just waiting to break down on their heads.

"What happened to them?" Jack asked, his voice being pushed out of his tight throat.

Mim only shook his head once more as he faced the boy.

"I don't know, Jack, I can't find them," he answered truthfully. "I've had my moonbeams look for him whenever their on Earth, I've even sent one of my best warriors on the look for him, but they're nowhere to be found."

"If you find them," Jack said, turning his gaze back to the destruction sent before them.

He could feel vile pushing up his throat at the thought that this was Hiccup's handy work. All of his life he knew the boy as a creator. This was nothing like him. Turning back to Mim he had to clear his throat before he began again.

"If you find them, what are you going to do?"

Mim pressed his lips into a thin line as he simply stared at the spirit he'd created.

"They are not monsters. They are simply the ones suffering from my neglect - and although I know I will get a wave of protest from the others, I plan to take Hiccup in and try to help him," Mim explained, allowing Jack to let out a breath of relief. "I'm not going to lie, however, Jack. I'm afraid that there has never been a known case of anyone reversing the process of the Fearling poison. If he can not be helped, then he will be too dangerous to keep around and I will have to send him to the next stage of the realms and he will join his long since passed loved ones."

Any sense of calm that had fallen upon him quickly vanished as Jack felt a shiver run down his spine at the thought of it. He couldn't lose Hiccup again. Losing him the first time had been hard enough, he wasn't going to allow Mim to hurt him anymore if he could help it.

"If you touch him..."

"Jack," Mim snapped, his voice so sudden and strong that it cut off any words the boy could have said. "I understand about how worried you are for his sake, but you have to remember the children as well. Hiccup was brought back by me the first time when he was very small, then he was brought back by you after receiving a Fearling bite, and once more by me when I couldn't allow him to die. He is a Fearling that cannot be killed by light or the weapons of the Moon. He is a spirit that is not weakened by cold or heat. His mind is gone. If we cannot control him, he will become a threat to everything we protect."

"You can't do that!" Jack snapped, his gaze narrowing as the staff in his hand stared to glow a dull blue.

"We can't allow him to be a destructive force of nature, either," Mim replied before he waved his hand out to the ground again. "He did this in mere minutes. Minutes, Jack. In a mindless fit of rage he managed to nearly destroy everything here. If he snaps while he's on Earth? Would I have to tell you about the countless cities he could lay to waste?"

Biting back on his tongue, Jack could feel the back of his eyes burn. If Mim caught Hiccup, and he couldn't be helped, Hiccup would die. If Mim didn't find him, and something set the boy off, Hiccup could destroy hundreds of people. The idea of it made him cringe, it made him feel sick to his stomach as he tightly wrapped his free arm around his waist.

"He hasn't done anything," Jack tried, his voice seeming weak in the still air. "If you leave him alone then I'm sure that he would do just fine. He might..."

"I would rather take care of the problem," Mim interrupted as Jack snapped his mouth shut, "before it happens. Besides, Jack, what would happen if Pitch got a hold of him? If that happened, we would have no choice but to end him. There is no telling what he would be able to make the boy do."

"Why would Hiccup do anything for him?" Jack snarled, the idea of Hiccup listening to Pitch at all leaving a bad taste in his mouth.

"All Fearlings listen to their master, Jack."

Jack gagged, the thought of Hiccup calling Pitch his master making his head spin and his body tense. The idea made him grow silent. It seemed that it didn't matter what would happen, Hiccup was going to have the short end of the stick. If Mim got him, there was a slight chance of life. If Pitch got him... well, that would just be bad all the way around. It was starting to seem as if Fate hated the boy or something. It didn't matter what situation Hiccup was in, he was going to lose.

Unless Jack found him first.

If Jack could find him, then he could take care of him. He and Toothless could do everything in their power to return the boy to normal and then demand his memories back. They could take care of Hiccup properly. They wouldn't treat him like some monster or pet. They wouldn't treat him like a mistake that they made that they needed to clear up. He would be safer with them both. They could help him.

Coming to his conclusion, Jack backed away from the man as his gaze narrowed.

"Hiccup belongs with me," he said, his voice level as Mim's lips pulled downwards. "He doesn't belong with you or Pitch. I'm going to find him first, and when I do, I'm never handing him over to you," Jack snarled, keeping an eye on the moon guards that were slowly creeping forward.

"Jack, you have to see that you will be out of your league, even if you do manage to find him," Mim scoffed, shaking his head at the boy as if he was being a misbehaving child.

"Hiccup would never hurt me," Jack threw in as he crouched down and shifted his feet. "And I'd freeze the world over before I'd let you hurt him."

"Jack, you don't..."

He was done listening. He'd wanted answers and he got them. While he'd been wandering around trying to find himself, Hiccup had lost himself and he wasn't going to come back without any help other than Toothless. Jack was going to find him, and he was going to help Hiccup, and if he couldn't do that, he was going to protect him till the world stopped spinning. He had no idea how he was going to do it, he only knew that the moment he found the boy he wasn't going to let him go.

**Winder: **So this chapter was Betaed by Twilight for me! :) It took a lot longer than I thought but she had some really great ideas and I'm quiet please with how this chapter turned out. :D Thanks Twilight! Anyways guys, I'm about to fall asleep on my keyboard so I'm gonna go. :) Enjoy though! :D


	4. Chapter 4

Hiccup Nights Remember Me

Chapter 4

"And then the lovely princess was eaten by the evil witch!" Jamie exclaimed as he came near the end of his story, attacking his little sister's sides with tickles that left the girl squealing in delight.

"No! She can't die!" Sophie cried, gasping for air as he let her loose. "She suddenly cuts her way out of the witch's evil stomach!" the little blond shouts as Jamie's mouth falls open.

"Ouch! That would sting. 'Oh no!' the evil witch cries, 'I have been defeated!'" Jamie said in a high pitched, cackly voice that sounded like sandpaper being scrapped over rough wood.

"And the princess went home and ruled her castle like a boss!" Sophie finished.

Jamie snickered as he rolled off of her bed and brushed himself off.

"Okay, Soph, it's time to go to bed."

The young girl whined, her bright smile quickly being replaced by a pout as he pulled her blankets up to her chin.

"Can't I hear another one?" she begged, making the boy shake his head with a smile of his own.

"I already gave you two tonight. You were supposed to be in bed twenty minutes ago."

"But Jamieeee!" she whined, a yawn interrupting her halfway through.

"Go to bed, Sophie," he tasked, smiling warmly at the little girl as he tapped the base of her lamp until it grew dim. "I'll see you in the morning, alright?"

The little girl simply nodded, a large yawn cutting off any words she could have said as she snuggled into her cocoon of blankets. Chuckling softly to himself, Jaime backed out of the room, almost silently closing the door behind himself. When he heard the click of it slipping closed, he let out a small sigh of content before he turned away from the door.

Moving across the short distance of the doorway, he gave a grin as he opened it.

"Sorry 'bout that guys."

His 'band of miscreants' all looked up from their places, each of them shooting him a smile.

"It's fine, Jamie," Monty said, glancing back down at his laptop as he continued his typing. "We know how much Sophie loves your stories." He chuckled as Pippa rested her elbows on her crossed legs while leaning forward and plopping her chin in her hands.

"Which one did you tell her tonight?" she asked, her question catching the attention of Cupcake and the twins as well.

Jamie just shrugged at the girl on his bed as he moved over to his dresser and hopped up on the clear surface, paying no mind to the small creak it let out in protest.

"The one about the princess and the witch." He said as Claude groaned and Caleb snickered.

"Pay up," Caleb said as he held a hand out to his brother.

Jamie simply rolled his eyes at their behavior before he nodded his head to the two that were laying on his floor with a pile of books spread out in front of them.

"Did you guys get any research done while I was gone?" he asked as Monty huffed at the desk that he was sitting at before he threw and arm over the back of the chair and sent a small smirk to the other.

"You were gone for about ten minutes, Jamie."

"Twenty," the brunet corrected as he shot the other a cheeky grin.

Cupcake shifted in her place from where she was leaning against the bed. Rubbing at her lower back for a moment she slid her feet under herself before she placed a hand in the air.

"Caleb found something."

Turning his attention back to the darker skinned kids, Jamie couldn't help but chuckle as Claude gasped loudly at the mention of it.

"Oh yeah!" he nearly shouted.

Jamie was thankful when the group all joined in on a choruses of hushed sounding 'shhh's.

"Right, Sophie," Claude snickered sheepishly in a whisper. "Sorry."

"So what did you guys find?" Jamie asked while Caleb took over for his brother as he pulled his knees to his chest.

"We found out the supposed reason for the 'unknown cause of the fire'," he said, his grin nearly splitting his face in half as Claude nodded his head vigorously from beside him.

"Ya! It was said that, after being thrown out of the house for having a secret relationship with their daughter, a witch cast a spell on the house to curse it for all times."

Jamie, on the other hand, raised a brow at that. It didn't seem to make too much sense to him why someone would curse a house that their loved one was still in. Did she make plans to run away with this girl or was she just going to let her suffer with the rest of them?

"What about the girl in the house?" he asked, deciding just to get a straight answer rather than guessing. "Why would she curse it if she was still in there?"

"Aw," Pippa suddenly murmured as her smile fell into a frown while her brows drew together, "that's the sad part."

"Em hm." Caleb agree while his own grin dropped the slightest as well. "It says that she committed suicide not too long after. The witch only cast the spell after as punishment."

"Oh, that makes sense," Jamie said with a small nod of his head before he started to play a small beat on his knees. "Why did they have a witch in their house in the first place, though?"

"According to the records," Claude said, jumping in and shoving his brother out of the way before he could talk, "this family was known to love anything that had to do with the occult. They would hold séances all the time and even used a Ouija broad regularity."

"Really?" Jamie said as he raised a single brow, unable to keep the smile off his face at the sight of his friends sprouting large ones of their own.

"Ya, weird, right? They sound kind of like us, right?" Claude asked as Cupcake shuttered from her place.

"I hope our ending is different," she muttered, earning herself a light pat on the head from Pippa.

"Did you guys find out anything else?" Jamie asked, shooting Cupcake a reassuring smile before his eyes darted over to Monty who quickly stuck his hand in the air.

"Just in!" he said, his eyes glued to the screen of his computer as he read what was written across it. "No one, and I repeat, no one has been in that house since the fire," he said as he clicked the mouse to scroll down the screen. "It's impossible to get into the house, no matter what entrance you try to enter. Something will always push you out or it will have been blocked. There's countless websites on here saying how they couldn't even get in to take pictures, and the ones they took from standing outside apparently just end up either all white or all black."

"Creepy," Cupcake said, wiggling her fingers around to enhance her words as Pippa bit down on her bottom lip to hold back her own fit of giggles.

"That is a little creepy," Jamie agree before his brows pulled together while his lips twitched downwards. "If that happens, though, than how do we get in?"

"Well," Monty said as he clicked out of the page he was on and searched through another tab, "apparently you need the key. The house will only let the people with the key in, but it has to be the original key."

"I wouldn't bother with it, guys, it sounds like a reaper house."

Each kid nearly jumped out of their skin at the new voice, some of them even covering their mouths to keep their screams from escaping. Jamie felt his own eyes blowing wide open at the sight of the winter spirit on the other side of his bedroom. How on earth had Jack gotten in here without him noticing? He was staring right at his window!

Not that he really cared one way or the other. Jack was here, and he was never going to complain about that.

"Jack!"

His voice mixed in with the other cries of the teens name as all the kids seemed to move at once. Jack didn't even have time to brace himself before he was tackled by the large group of kids and became the bottom part of a dog pile.

"It's nice to see you guys, too," Jack wheezed as he squirmed underneath them, not able to move much more than a few inches before the weight crushed him and he just decided on dropping his head back down to the hard wood floor. "Guys...can't...breathe."

"Oops! Sorry!" Pippa snickered as she got up and proceeded to peal the rest of the kids off with Jamie's help.

When Jack was finally free, Jamie stuck out his hand to help him up as well. As Jack grabbed a hold of his hand, he couldn't help but let his cheeks flare up at their close contact. When the ice teen shot him a crooked smirk and a quick thank you, he could feel his insides melt as his tongue failed to form words, so he just nodded his head in reply.

Oh great, it was this again. Why did this have to happen every single time that he was around Jack? It always made him look like an idiot, and it was so painfully obvious that he was surprised that none of his friends, or even Jack himself, hadn't noticed.

"It's been nearly two months since we saw you last," Jamie said, only remembering to pull his hand away when Jack started to flex his fingers. "Where have you been?"

Jack just continued smiling, letting out a soft chuckle that sounded off to Jamie. There was something wrong. The light in his eyes wasn't nearly as bright, his smile wasn't nearly as wide as it normally was, and if Jamie looked closer, his eyes even seemed a little bit glazed, as if he was trying to hold back tears or something. In all the years that he'd known Jack, he'd never once seen the boy near tears. Jack didn't let anything bother him and was left generally unfazed by everything that he came across. What the hell had happened?

"Ya, well, you know North," Jack said, his chuckling seeming too forced for Jamie's liking as a frown pulled at his own lips. "He's such a slave driver. If I'm not making it snow, I have to help the Yeti's in the workshop."

"Bummer," Claude frowned as he leaned against his brother. "That doesn't sound like fun at all."

Jack just chuckled once more, the sound seeming a bit more forced than it had the first time. His brows were even pulling together just a tad and Jamie was starting to wonder if his room was seconds away from being frozen over when the staff in the spirits hands throbbed with a dull glow.

"What's a reaper house, Jack?" Monty asked, Jamie barely hearing his question over his intense analyzing of Jack's body language.

"Oh." He watched as Jack's smile faltered while the winter spirit ran his free hand through his hair and his grip on his staff tightened. "Reaper houses are places on earth where reapers can keep large amounts of souls until they're ready to move them to the next place in the afterlife," Jack explained as he shrugged his shoulders slightly. "Depending on what kind of souls they keep there, you guys could be okay to be there or it could be very dangerous. Generally, though, you can't enter them no matter how hard you try but you don't want to get rid of it either. If you destroy a reaper house, then all the souls are destroyed and your own is cursed as punishment."

"Whoa."

Jamie had to agree with Cupcake on this one. He'd been studying everything to do with spirits for years and this was the first time that he had ever heard about something like that.

"If we did get in, though, and we ran into a reaper, could they, you know, kill us?" Monty questioned, his voice shaking a little as Jack just raised a brow at him.

"Reapers are soul harvesters," he muttered out, the smallest of grins pulling at his lips. "They can't hurt a human who isn't dead, and generally they don't care one way or another about living humans. They're only here to protect the souls that they have. They do have scythes like you guys seem to like drawing them with, but it's not to kill anyone with. It's just for them to use against other spirits that eat souls or steal them," Jack explained while Jamie crossed his arms over his chest.

"How do you know all this?" He asked.

It wasn't that he didn't believe Jack, it just seemed weird for a spirit of children to know that, and oddly enough Jack seemed to calm down a little bit as he explained this to them. Then again, Jack did spend countless years wandering around aimlessly - if he had run into one or two of these kinds of spirits he couldn't be all that surprised. Besides, it seemed that talking about this was taking Jack's mind off of whatever was bothering him.

"Oh well, you know how some people die during the winter?" Jack asked and Jaime wanted to hit his head off the wall for asking.

Just great, try to take his mind off of something that upset him to something that reminded Jack that sometimes people were killed due to his own magic. Smooth.

The rest of the kids winced too as Monty just patted Jack on the shoulder. They knew that it wasn't his fault. Jack didn't set out to hurt anyone much less kill them, but sometimes things just happened. After all, anything that happened after he put the ice down was out of his control.

"Ya, well, when someone dies before they're supposed to it really pisses them off since it throws a lot of things out of balance, and they have to spend years sometimes trying to sort everything out. I've actually gotten in a few fights with Abyss over it."

"Abyss?" Jamie questioned again, his brow arching up as Jack rolled his eyes and let out a loud groan.

"Ugh. Yes. Abyss. I almost forgot about that asshole."

"Jack!" Pippa gasped, covering her mouth at his language as the twins snickered and Cupcake shook her head with a small smile.

"It's true," Jack countered, sticking his tongue out at the girl playful as the short haired brunet giggled.

"Who is he?" Monty asked as he shifted a little bit in his seat, his fingers already set to type up the new found information.

"The son of Grim. They don't talk about him much anywhere, I think it's just a few passages every now and then, but he's the one who 'flashes people's lives before their eyes' seconds before they die," Jack said, making quotations with his fingers. "When he does that, he's just reviewing your life and seeing what you should do or become after you die. It's a complicated process and to be honest I don't understand much of it."

Monty just nodded his head, his eyes already glued to his computer as he added to his list of spirits.

"Is that house where you guys are going to go next?" Jack asked, a small frown pulling at his lips when Jamie caught his attention with a nod of his head. "Be careful. Throw salt at it first, though, alright? If the house spits it back at you, don't go in," he warned while Cupcake turned to Claude.

"It's your turn to buy."

Ignoring the two as they started a small argument over it, Jamie watched as Jack seemed to glance at all of them. His gaze never seemed to stay on one kid for long before they caught with Jamie's and he felt his breath catch in his throat when Jack tilted his head slightly towards the door. Seeing that the others had broken up the petty banter and switched the conversation over to how they were supposed to get things ready, Jamie nudged Pippa.

"Me and Jack are gonna go downstairs for a bit, okay?" he muttered, keeping his voice low to draw as less attention as he could.

She only nodded at him, understanding that sometimes Jack and Jamie did just like to hangout together, and allowing them to leave without a fuss.

Slipping out the door with Jack on his heels, Jamie couldn't help but frown when the older boy sighed and dropped his head into his hand, rubbing at his eyes for a moment.

In a way, it made him feel really special that he knew Jack didn't feel the need to act around him. He hated seeing the guy upset, however, and wished that he could know what was wrong with the other. There was no way he was going to ask questions, yet - he wanted them to get down the stairs first, at the very least. After all, he didn't want anything that Jack was going to tell him to be over heard by the others. If they had to go downstairs to talk about it, Jamie could only assume that it was because he didn't want the others to know that he was even the slightest bit upset with anything.

When they got downstairs, Jamie wasted no time in leading them to the kitchen and boiling some water.

"Okay, so what happened?" he asked as he snatched two cups out of the cupboard and the hot chocolate powder off of the top to the fridge.

When he heard a loud bang from behind him, he couldn't stop himself from jumping. Tossing a look over his shoulder, he felt his brows furrow together when he saw that Jack had face planted the island top and showed no signs of lifting it any time soon.

Placing the objects down on the counter, he moved over to the winter teen and sat down on the stool next to him. He bit down on his bottom lip as his hands stayed in his lap for a moment. Maybe it would be okay to pat Jack on the shoulder or something right now. He looked awful, or he was sure he did, he couldn't really tell when it wasn't looking at him. The second that Jack's shoulders started to shake, however, Jamie felt panic raise up in him as his eyes darted around to try and find a tissue box anywhere.

Jack shot up, his movement so sudden that Jamie nearly toppled out of his chair and crashed to the floor from surprise. When Jack turned to face him, his eyes even redder than they had been upstairs but still no signs of tears spilling out, he could feel his heart break on the inside for the immortal teen.

"Mim wants to kill Hiccup."

For a moment Jamie felt as if he stopped breathing. No, that wasn't right. For a moment he thought that the world had just stopped. He knew who Hiccup was, or at least he had heard about him. Countless times. Every time he saw Jack, actually. Jack talked about Hiccup. A lot. Every time he was down, he would spend hours on the subject of the dragon flying Viking. Sure, Jamie had never met the kid face to face, but he knew that he hated him. He knew that he hated the stupid Viking spirit with every cell in his body. He knew that he hated him because Hiccup had something that he didn't.

Hiccup had Jack.

And that just killed him.

"Oh."

Well that wasn't what he meant to say. At all.

"Um, why would he want to do that?" Jamie asked, moving away from the table and over to the counter once more when the universal click was heard from their spot.

As he got the hot chocolate ready, Jack told the story of what had happened after he'd left the North pole and gone to Mim's. He told him of the sight of the Moon and what had happened to Hiccup and Toothless. He told him about having to fight with lunar moths and moonbeams, he told him of actually meeting Mim for the first time and then all that Mim had told him. By the time Jack was done, Jamie was halfway through his hot chocolate and Jack was just clutching to the cup in his hands. It was no doubt ice cold by now, but Jack didn't seem to care as he took a huge gulp from it anyways.

"So," Jamie mumbled into the thick silence as Jack dropped the mug back on to the island with a clang, "you have to find him first?"

"I've been looking for him for years, Jamie," Jack growled out, his anger reflecting in his words as he glared into his nearly empty cup. "I didn't want to at first, because of Mim's warning, but I thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad to see him as long as I didn't approach him. All this time, I haven't found him once and he's not..." Jack's words became chocked, as he bit back on his tongue and curled into himself.

This time Jamie did reach out as he placed a hand on the older male's back and rubbed small circles across it with his finger tips. It made him feel horrible that he was actually somewhat glad that this kid had lead Jack to become so miserable that he was actually looking to someone for help. It was a terrible thing for him to take advantage of this, but he supposed as long as Jack never found out he'd be alright.

"What do you need me to do?"

He didn't want to help get them back together, but he wanted to help Jack, and he was willing to do whatever he could in order to make the ice spirit smile again.

"I need help trying to find him," Jack said, sloshing the liquid around in his cup. "I have no idea where to look or to even start. Mim isn't going to tell me so I can't even go there to see where he's already scouted, and I have no idea how I'm supposed to find one person who could be anywhere."

Jamie pressed his lips together for a moment as he stared down at the marked up counter.

"What about that one person who still sees them from time to time?" He asked, tilting his head slightly as he tried to sort through his thoughts. "I mean, Mim says that he's still doing his job, right? So they have to see him from time to time. I mean, maybe the only reason that they don't tell Mim anything about Hiccup is because they know what will happen to him if they do. Maybe they're protecting him, too."

Ugh, why was he helping with this?

Seeing the sudden smile come over Jack's face, the small spark of hope and excitement almost bubbling out of his very being, Jamie couldn't help but smile as he remembered why.

"That's a great idea!" he exclaimed as he jumped from his seat and took to the air, nearly running into the ceiling in his excitement. "All I have to do is find out where they are and explain my situation, and I'm sure that they'd love to help!" he said, the grin across his lips almost splinting his face in half. "Thank you, Jamie!"

Jamie let out a very manly squeak when Jack suddenly dived down and trapped him in a tight bear hug. He could feel the blood run to his cheeks as his eyes went wide. His heart was beating rapidly in his chest, and he felt as if the very air from his lungs had been stolen. Jack pulled back slightly, and smiled brightly down at the boy. Before Jamie could protest, he placed a kiss to the boy's forehead and pulled him in once more before letting him go.

"Do you guys have their supposed location? Something I could go off of? I have a feeling that the others aren't going to help me and I want to get started right away," Jack said, not able to stay in one place for longer than a few seconds as his words ran a mile a minute.

Jamie, on the other hand, was stunned. He felt as if he couldn't move - as if he'd been frozen with the action the other had taken. He only managed to snap himself out of it when a cold hand was pressed to his forehead and Jack's bright baby blues were right in his face.

"You okay, Jamie?" Jack asked, his eyes filled with concern.

Jamie felt as if someone had just ripped a knife down his heart at the obvious older brother affections that were being given to him by his crush.

Jack really wasn't ever going to see him as anything different than his first believer, was he?

"Yup," he forced out, placing a smile on his face and wishing he had something left to drink so that he could force down the sudden knot in his throat. "Let's go ask Monty, okay?"

The other was so excited that Jack just nodded his head quickly and disappeared up the stairs. Jamie stayed down for a little longer in order to pick up the shattered pieces of his heart.

**Winder: **Hey guys! :D I hope that you liked this chapter and some really interesting and good news is that I finally have a beta reader! :D They're super awesome and a big shout out to them for helping me with the chapters! :D Thanks Hun! **Hiccup Overland:** Hey! Welcome back bud! :) Thanks! I've been trying to work on my grammar and now I have a beta so it should be even better! :D Thank you and take care as well! I hope you have a good day. :) Or night depending. :) **AlexJohnD:** Well hopefully this makes up for it? ; I mean at least Jack is smiling again. :D That's got to count for something right? :) Sorry bud. ; **Kigen Dawn:** Ooo, I'm actually really looking forward to them meeting, sadly though it won't happen for awhile yet so meh, but I'm really looking forward to it! X) **Faisyah865:** Yessssss. I must happen Hun, but don't worry, things will turn out all right, hopefully...


	5. Chapter 5

Hiccup Nights Remember Me

Chapter 5

"Mary, Mary, quiet contrary, how does your garden grow?" Pitch muttered softly as he walked deeper into the lair of one of the most feared spirits around the globe. He knew that no one else would ever dare to come near this place. It was her home, and spirits wouldn't so much as set a toe in it, just in case it would draw her attention and make them a target.

Really, he never understood the hype with her, but it seemed more than enough kids and even some adults played her games to make her one of the strongest beings of fear ever known. It probably also helped that she was a master of her craft, and that magic mirrors weren't her only specialty.

His shadows curled around him protectively, as if they were expecting her to jump out of nowhere and end him. He knew that most of the shadows in here weren't his; they were hers, and that, if she so wanted, she could choke his out with barely a flick of her wrists. Most other spirits wouldn't even travel anywhere close to her lair, in fear that they'd been eaten alive if they so much as put one toe into her space.

"Pitch, to what do I owe the honor of you visiting my humble abode?" the voice ghosted over his ear. The feeling of it warm, but the smell making him force back a gag at the overpowering stench of rotting flesh.

Smoothly side-stepping the girl, he waited until they were face to face before he made his response.

"I'm assuming that you received my letter?" he said, his voice strictly on business now that she was before him.

At his question, her head dropped back and she let out a loud cackle of a laugh, her entire skeleton thin frame shaking with the motion. When she finally lowered he head back down to stare at him through the holes in her head where eyes use to be, he fought back against himself to keep from cringing. This spirit really just rubbed him the wrong way.

"Oh, your cute little errands boys," she cooed, moving around him as if she was floating passed on a breeze of air. "You should send them over more." Her grin was wide now, showing off two rows of sharp and chipped teeth. He just knew if Tooth could see these, she would drop to her knees in tears at the sight of them. "I'd love to just have a nibble of the big one."

"We have talked about this," Pitch said, being careful to keep his voice even and not rock bottom growling. "You don't get to eat either of them. They're mine."

"Just one bite?"

"Mary."

"Fine," she sighed, cocking her head to the side before moving deeper into her cave.

"The letter?" Pitch asked, bringing them back to the reason that he was here as she gave a simple wave of her hand while they moved closer and closer to a pile of something Pitch couldn't make out from the distance.

"I've done my part, and I've kept everything in codes like you've asked," she said, grabbing on to something from the pile and giving it a rough yank.

Pitch couldn't stop his nose from twitching in disgust when he heard the tear, and saw that what she was holding in her hands was a human leg.

"I must say, the Slender idea was a bigger success than I would have thought it to be. Even bigger than the candle vigil that I set up," she said, taking a nibble from the torn part, as he felt her eyeless gaze moving up and down him. "You are looking better. A lot stronger than before."

Lifting his hand, Pitch stared down at it. It was true that for a little while after his test run with the Guardians he had been rather weak. Thankfully, with Mary's contribution and Hiate feeding him from time to time with fears he'd snatched up or received from Abyss, it didn't take him long to become strong again. However, he did have to agree that he hadn't felt quiet this powerful in a long time. Playing weak for so many years before he was able to test out his subjects, and then having to lose so easily wasn't something he was planning on doing again. This time when he face them, it wouldn't be a battle. It would be an annihilation.

Pitch only managed to break away from his thoughts when he felt the lightest grazing of teeth against his fingers. Quickly ripping his hand away from the girl's mouth, he shot her a glare while she frowned.

"Greedy. You've got nine others," she muttered, backing away and continuing to chew on the rotting flesh in her hands.

"I need you to do one more thing for me."

"You said as much in the letter," she muttered, seeming to pay him barely any attention anymore as she was more interested in the treat in her hands.

"Your role after this will be done."

"Aw, I quiet liked having an actual goal again," she sighed, dropping herself on the pile and dropping her head back as if she was lounging on a couch and not a bunch of bodies. "What do you need?"

"I want you to take care of Abyss."

At his words, the tiny female finally came to a slow stop. Her lips pressed into a thin line as her head tilted to the side, the skin over her neck being stretched as far as it could.

"Grimm's son?" she asked, her voice betraying nothing, leaving it simple and smooth. "You want him gone?" she muttered, now turning away from Pitch as she tsked, disappearing in a wave of dark shadows. "He's not going to like that."

"Which is why I want you to be discreet," the king of darkness said, his eyes glancing this way and that in boredom while his mind was frantically trying to find her in the shadows. "I've never known you to refuse a challenge, Mary."

A gleeful laugh echoed around the air, making a small crack in his mask as his lips twitch before he was able to control it back into its neutral setting. When a bony hand landed feather light on his shoulder, he suppressed the shutter that threatened to run through him as her lips were back at his ear.

"And I never will," she purred, her sharp teeth nipping at his ear hard enough to draw blood.

Pitch gave her a hard shove, making sure she was a good distance away as he glared at her. She was left unfazed, on the other hand, as broken laughter slipped passed her lips once more.

"It's a shame, really," she grinned as she held out her hand to inspect her nails without the use of her eyes. "I didn't mind his company too much. I guess that's what could make it so much fun, though."

Pitch just continued to eye her for a moment. If she thought that's what made things fun, it was no wonder there was no one left for her. The Moon forbid if she found anyone. A black widow would be the perfect pet for her.

"If this task," he continued slowly, catching her attention once more, "could be done as soon as possible, that would be best."

An eerie smile came over her face, the darkness only making what little white was left on her teeth gleam and the blood seem that much brighter. The insanity spilling off of this spirit in waves made him tense as she grabbed at the tattered remains of a once beautiful dress with claw-like fingers and graced him with a mock bow.

"As you wish." The words were laced with mockery, and not even seconds later a burst of laughter fell from her capped lips before she was swallowed by her own shadows.

Pitch's darkness curled around him more protectively, unsure of what to make of the situation and wondering if he was safe. Without a second glance back, Pitch turned on her darkness and headed back to the mouth of the cave. He had other things to attend to.

(It's not stupid if you believe in it.)

"Hiate!"

Toothless couldn't help but snicker at the excited shout that the redhead gave as they drew closer to Punz's place. She was waving wildly from the only opening in the whole tower with a large grin across her face. Hiccup responded in kind with an excited yip of his own as he dived towards the open window and tackled the redhead inside.

Rolling his eyes, the dragon-humanoid followed closely behind, landing gracefully on top of the worn frame as he glanced about the large area for a certain blond. Ignoring the two for a moment as Merida apparently tried to attempt to show Hiccup a game, he walked over to where the endless supply of hair seemed to be coming from. As he rounded an overly tall bookcase, he couldn't help but let a small smile come to his face as he found who he was looking for.

It looked like they had come at a bad time if the book she was trying to hold down and tape back together was any indication. Deciding not to interrupt her while she was busy, he hung back and allowed his gaze to drift lazily to the labels of the books that didn't care to be flying around just this second.

Out of all of the things that they had lost over time, Toothless couldn't have been happier that Punz was not one of them, and at a later date, Merida as well. When Hiccup had just started to lose his mind, she had been the one that they went to for comfort and help. She hadn't managed to stop it, sadly, but she never gave up trying to slow it down, or looking for a reverse cure when Hiccup had completely turned. When Toothless has come crashing into her place after the failed attempt at asking one of the stronger spirits for help, she had been the one to help patch them up and had agree to keep their locations hidden from anyone who asked.

Toothless could still remember the few times that the moonbeams or Nightlight would stop by, and Punz would hide them around the tower somewhere until they were gone and it was safe to come out again. He could still almost hear his heart hammering in his ears at the memories of having either of those 'things' get anywhere near his Hiccup. The idea of having him taken away was the worst kind of feeling that twisted his stomach and hollowed out his chest.

She'd been with them through it all, though, and for that he owed her everything. She didn't treat Hiccup like a monster. She saw the good in him, just like she saw the good in everyone.

It was just hard sometimes when he wasn't able to see her as much as he liked, or when he finally did manage to get to her only to find out that she had no new information to offer him. The hope that she gave him was just as draining as it was refreshing. Sometimes he wished that he didn't have any hope for this to be fixed. Then he wouldn't have to live day by day hoping that he would be able to get his Hiccup back, he would be able to accept it and move on. Other days, he couldn't have been more happy to believe that one day everything would be able to return to normal. All of the flip-flopping emotions built up to be exhausting, especially as time moved on and days, weeks, and months turned to years. He was starting to wonder if hope was even worth having, anymore.

A happy little squeal drew his attention back to the present as he moved his bright green eyes over to the girl who was holding up the book, no doubt a large smile blooming over her face at her success.

"There you go, all better now," she cheered, letting the book go and watching it fly away with her hands on her hips as it joined its other friends.

** Good job, Punzie.**

He said, startling her as her hands flew out to her sides and she jumped.

Spinning around to face him, he couldn't help but laugh at the giant smile on her face as she threw her hands out.

"Toothless!" she cheered, running up to him and throwing her tiny arms around his shoulders. "I haven't seen you guys in so long!"

** I know, a year is way too much time.**

He agreed as he hugged her back and easily lifted her off her feet for a few moments.

Quickly pulling away, Punz clasped her hands in front of her chest and beamed up at him. "How have you been? You're brain must be on over load with everything you've got in it."

Before he could get another word out, she made another small squeaking noise and spun around to snatch a book out of the air that was just about to fly passed. Flipping it open to a blank page, she turned back to him and wasted no time in shoving it in his face. Letting out a surprise yelp of his own Toothless' hands flew to the book but missed before it could whack him in the face as she walked around him.

"That reminds me that I made some things for you guys to try! Me and Merida were just trying out a few things, and they turned out so good that I made some extra and thought you two would love to steal a bite. After all, can't work on an empty stomach, right?" she chattered, continuing on her way as Toothless peeled the book away from his face and followed after the girl.

Staring down at the pages, he slowly allowed his mind to be imprinted on the pages in his hands as his eyes glazed over. He remembered when he use to watch Hiccup do this. As the boy's mind started going, however, they all found it was best for Toothless to take over the position. Some of the pictures or ideas that ended up in those books were enough to haunt him and the girls for months. Hiccup himself had been mortified and had begged Punz to erase the pages.

** Just don't give him too much if it has a lot of sugar in it.**

"Oh, please," the girl scoffed with a wave of her hand as Toothless let the book go, not bothering to see where it was flying off to. "What do I make that has that much sugar in it?"

When he simply raised a brow at her, she could only force out a chuckle before clearing her throat and turning back to the others in the room.

"Hiate!" she called, opening her arms up and drawing the attention of the small Fearling.

Toothless couldn't help but smile as Hiccup bounded away from some sort of game he'd been playing with Merida in order to nuzzle up to the other girl while she giggled and gently stroked his hair.

"Aw!" she cooed, grabbing each side of his face in her hands as she held him out just a little. "I missed you too, Hickey."

The boy stuck his tongue out and playfully licked the tip of her nose, pulling out another little snicker from the spirit before he withdrew and made his way back to Merida. Toothless chose to stick closer to the troublemakers of their odd little group and not follow after Punz when he realized that the game they were playing involved the fire that the redhead was making in her hands.

** Sure that's a good idea there, Red?**

He asked, snatching up her attention as Hiccup rolled over on the floor, seeming content enough with that if they weren't going to play.

"I'm not going to burn anything," Merida said, defending herself from what she knew the older male was thinking as he simply continued to stare down at her. After a few more seconds, she cracked with an aggravated huff, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. "Spoilsport."

When Hiccup realized that their game wasn't happening at all, he let out a small whine and gave the girl a soft whack in the head with his tail. Caught off guard, the fire spirit sputtered, her wild curls having been forced into her mouth from his action.

"It's not my fault," she grumbled as she shoved a hand towards the direction Toothless was in. "Blame him."

"Oh, Merida, hush," Punz said, seeming to morph out of nowhere with a plate of steaming treats in her hands. "You know he has a very good reason for being weary. Or do I have to remind you about the countless books I'm still in the middle of rewriting because of 'the incident'?"

When she couldn't come up with anything to counter that remark, Merida chose to stay quiet and just grumble lowly to herself. Hiccup found amusement in her embarrassment as he let out a hiss-sounding cackle that lead to the girl giving him a rough shove.

"Here you are," Punz said as she turned her attention back to Toothless and offered him the platter. "I had no idea when you guys would show up so Merida made sure to keep them warm and fresh for you."

** Thank you.**

Taking a few of the odd shaped treats from the tray, he gave her a small smile before she moved herself over to the other two. He couldn't help but feel a small amount of warmth flooding his chest as he watched her kneel down and offer some more to the other two. The way that Hiccup sniffed at them and poked out his tongue to feel the temperature of one that was hanging on the edge of the plate was just adorable. He wished more than anything that the boy would have enough sense to use his hands, but sadly that wasn't his first reaction anymore. Still, watching them all sitting together and laughing away with one another made the situation seem a little more normal. It made him feel a little less like he had no way to help the boy, and just a little more hopeful that they would be able to find something to help him one day.

They couldn't stay here all day, and the realization that this comforting picture was soon to be shattered brought back the darkness that had settled over his soul like a dead weight.

** We have to go.**

Hiccup didn't seem to care that he had spoken, after all Toothless hadn't addressed him directly, but Punz and Merida both did turn to him with a frown.

"But you just got here," the blond said, her attention so stolen by Toothless she didn't notice Hiccup snatching a few more cookies off of the tray.

** I know.**

Toothless agreed with a tight-lipped frown, his frown quickly disappearing behind a smile when Merida gave the boy a whack on the back of the head and stole some back.

** We have to get back before the Moon comes out.**

"Ugh, right," Merida grumbled while holding the treats out of Hiccup's reach.

Toothless simply let out another breath through his nose at her words. He didn't like it anymore than anyone else, but it was something that had to be done. He didn't want to get caught by Mim. He just knew if they did then it would lead to nothing but Hiccup's destruction. On that cheery note, however, they really had to get going.

** Hiccup, let's go.**

When the boy made no move to follow after him and instead kept his attention on his stolen treats, Toothless let out a long sigh. Rubbing at his eyes for a moment he just stood there, hating the idea of using that stupid name that Pitch gave him with all of his heart. When he felt a small hand on his shoulder, though, he peered over his fingers at the softly smiling face of the little blond.

"He'll get better, Toothless," she said, her voice just as soothing as the heat from her hand. "It's just going to take some more time."

He knew that, but it was still nice to hear that she hadn't given up on them. Lately, he'd been feeling like any attempt they made was just pushing them ten steps back. If Punz hadn't given up yet, though, then at least they still had one pillar of support.

Punz stared at him for a moment longer. When she bit down on her bottom lip and dropped her eyes to the side, Toothless couldn't help but tilt his head slightly at her. She only ever did that if she wanted to say something and she wasn't sure how he would react. He couldn't imagine just what it could be, though, so with a small huff of air, he managed to get her attention back. Her wide eyes let on that she was nervous, but other than that, he couldn't tell why she would be and so he patiently waited to be told.

"You know, Toothless, we've tried everything," she said softly, as if she was trying to pick out her words carefully in case there would be some sort of backlash. After all, this subject was always a sore spot for the old spirit. "Everything except Jack."

** No.**

He didn't mean for the answer to come out as such a growl, drawing the attention of the other two as well, but he didn't want Jack anywhere near Hiccup.

Punz drew back, her shoulders rising just a little bit, but her eyes narrowed and her lips pulled down to form a sharp frown as she stood her ground.

"Why not?" she asked, not bothering to try and ease him into it anymore now that she knew what his opinion was on it. "You said so yourself that they were madly in love with each other. Isn't love supposed to be the breaker of most things?"

** Don't believe everything you read in storybooks, Rapunzel. Jack is under the watch of Mim, he always has been, and now he's one of his Guardians.**

"So am I," the blond muttered, crossing her arms over her chest as she straightened herself out, seeming set on her decision. "I've never once done anything to put you two in harm's way."

Turning his attention away from her for a moment, Toothless snarled at the two spectators. Hiccup hissed back before backing away, and Merida shot him a glare before she resumed whatever it was they had been doing. Obviously, neither of them were happy with him and how he was treating their friend, but they also knew that he wasn't going to hurt her, and that when they got like this, it was best to let them work it out.

** Do not put yourself in the same boat as them.**

Toothless warned her as he turned his attention back to the blond who had yet to ease up on her stance.

** You might have been chosen by Mim, but you are not a slave to him like the others.**

"And how do you know Jack is?" she asked with a raised brow as he growled lowly at her question. "You told me what a rebel he was, why on earth would he do anything that Mim told him without a fight?"

** Punz.**

"Don't you think that he would help if he could?" she continued, finally dropping her arms and instead placing them on her hips. "Don't you think it's at least worth a shot?"

** A shot to do what?**

Toothless snarled viciously, his wings shaking in pent up rage as his sharp teeth gleamed at her.

** If they meet and someone at some point gets sloppy with sneaking around, if Pitch found out, if Mim found out - what then? What do you think they would do to him, Rapunzel? They wouldn't let them off for 'love'. They wouldn't think it would help. Mim would kill him. Pitch would destroy what was left of his 'human self'. Pitch needs Hiccup, and if he feels like he's losing him, he will not hesitate to destroy what little self-remembrance and free will he has. After he does that, there will be no way to bring him back. Ever.**

His words were final. He refused to allow even the thought of Jack's help to enter his mind. There was no way Jack would be able to help. He might have been in love with Hiccup for a while, but that was also a long time ago, and he would not lose his best friend by believing in old feelings. Feelings changed over time and loyalties shifted. No one knew that better them him. He'd almost lost his life for his naivety, and he'd almost got Hiccup killed in the process.

Turning his gaze to the much smaller spirit, he narrowed his eyes and locked them with the bright, emerald greens.

** Promise me, Rapunzel. Promise me this will be the last time you bring up Jack Frost.**

She seemed to stiffen, as if she didn't know what to do. Her lips parted as if she wanted to say something, but couldn't come up with the words to say. After a moment, however, her arms loosely crossed in front of her chest, curving into her body just the smallest amount as her gaze lowered to the floor.

"I promise."

A sharp screech accompanied by a muffled growl snapped both of their attention to the other two, and Toothless didn't know what to think when he saw the boy sitting on Merida's back and happily shoving treat after treat in his mouth while continuously whacking the girl in the face with his tail. The sight brought the smallest of smiles to his face, and Punz laughed out right before running over to save her friend. Using the treat tray as bait, the blond caught Hiccup's attention and lured him away from the redhead who only huffed as she pushed herself back up to her feet.

The dark atmosphere that had fallen on them seemed to disappear as he shook out the tension in his body that had been created by well-controlled rage. He knew that he shouldn't have been getting mad at her, she just wanted to help after all, but that was one option he was never going to try.

"Good fer nothin' Fearling troll," she muttered to herself as Toothless reached out and patted her head some.

** Nice try.**

Turning his attention back to Punz and Hiccup, he couldn't help but groan slightly when he saw the boy basically devour the entire tray of treats. That was just great, he was going to be jumping off of the walls by the time Toothless got him back to the caves.

Walking up to the gray-skinned male, he waited until he'd caught the boy's attention before nodding his head in the direction of the large window. Finally seeming to understand him now, Hiccup gave a short whine, turning his attention back to Punz quick enough to nuzzle into her before moving on to Merida. Still a little huffy over being beaten, the girl refused to look at him, at least until he made the most heartbreaking whimper ever. She just couldn't resist that, and turned back to happily give him a hug and ruffle his hair.

"Be good," she grinned as Toothless waved to both her and Punz as he jumped up on the windows ledge.

** We'll see you guys later.**

Jumping out the window, he couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the sound Hiccup made when he thought he was being left behind. It didn't take long for the boy to go after him, and soon enough they were flying side by side once more.

(I've been dreaming about them my whole life!)

Somewhere in eastern Europe.

He really didn't think that it could get anymore vague then that, but really that was all any of the kids had been able to give him. Monty had tried to be a little bit more helpful and told him that it was thought to have been closer to some part of northern Germany, but he couldn't pinpoint anything beyond that. Still, it was better than nothing, and Jack couldn't help but feel stupidly optimistic about the whole thing as he begged the wind to carry him faster.

Just as he was sure that he would be able to make it there in a few short hours, he was thrown to the side and let out a scream when his control over the wind was ripped from him. Tumbling towards the earth at a mind-numbing speed, Jack clung to his staff. He tried in vain to get the winds back under his control, but no matter how much he called to them, or begged to them, they continued to let him fall. The sight of the open ocean underneath him did little to quell the deep dread in his stomach. From this height, he might as well have been running straight into a floor of concrete.

Deciding to ditch the idea of the wind, Jack called forth the winter. He didn't care if this place wasn't supposed to get snow just yet, they could deal with a little bit of an early snowfall. Every time he tried to create even the smallest snowflake, however, it melted the second after it had formed. Growing frustrated Jack tried again and again, only to come up the same results as he drew closer, and closer to the earth. This wasn't looking like it was going to end well. Sure, he'd fallen great heights before, but never really from this height and never with water as his landing base.

There was no way he would be able to freeze the water before he hit it and Jack wasn't all that much of a great swimmer - in fact, he couldn't really swim at all. It wasn't something he'd learned when he was human, and nothing he'd taken interest in when he came back as a spirit. He had no reason to be when he created ice on everything he stepped across.

Now though? Now it was seeming like it might have been a good idea.

Jack's body jerked to a halt when he was only feet away from the ground. The air was stolen from his frozen lungs, but it had nothing to do with the motion and more to do with the sudden rise in temperature as he was hoisted back up at neck-breaking speed.

It was way too hot, and he felt like he was suffocating. As if no matter how hard he tried to breath, the air just burned his lungs and tore at his throat.

Never before had Jack ever felt like he was actually being burned alive. Most of the time, he had no interest in going to any of the hotter places on Earth, but whenever he did, he always made sure to keep it just cold enough to be comfortable. Even when he couldn't change the area around him, he could at least keep a constant chill around his own body. This? This was nothing like anything he'd ever felt. The heat wasn't just surrounding him, it was on him, attacking him, making him weak, light-headed, lead-limbed, and disoriented. It made him feel useless and vulnerable. Two of his most hated feelings in the world.

The worst was that he had no idea where it was coming from or who was doing it. His answer came soon enough when he managed to gather his mind enough to realize that he'd been brought to a stop and was hidden somewhere in a dense angry cloud.

"Well, look who it is," the voice was light, soft almost, but it still held an edge to it as if it was a sword waiting to slice through its enemy. "Hello, Jack."

He wanted to respond. To yell, to question them, to demand answers, to threaten. No part of his body was working any way he wanted it to, however, and even his head felt too heavy to keep up for long as he slouched forward in a hold he couldn't see.

The woman didn't speak again, but Jack gasped as the heat retreated from his body and let him fall to the shifting mist underneath. He was expecting to fall, but his feet only sank a few feet, almost up to his knees before his toes touched down on something solid. Not ready for the sudden ground, Jack stumbled, nearly crashing to his face before he managed to straighten out. Clinging his staff to his chest, he continued to breath in deeply, trying to regain as much power as he could and allowing his body temperature to climb back up to the bone-numbing chill he lived with.

The more he looked around and the more air he took in, the clearer his vision got until he was able to see just fine. Sadly, there wasn't much to look at, and even less for him to go off of trying to guess who this random attacker was. His feet shifted underneath him as he crouched lowly towards the clouds, bring his staff out to be ready to attack at any moment.

Laughter filled almost every space around him, making him whip his head around fast enough to give him whiplash. It wasn't the kind of laughter he was use to hearing, it wasn't the joyous, pure sound of fun and happiness that fell upon him now, but a sharp spiteful sound that sent a human chill down his spine.

"If I wanted to kill you, Jack, I would have done so."

He couldn't argue with that. In the two seconds that he'd come to know his attacker, he could see that it would be only to easy for her to do so. The fact that she chose not to wasn't too comforting, however, and he found himself taking in a deep breath as his eyes continued to scan around the area.

"What do you want?" He kept his tone even, choosing not to be downright rude to this particular unknown spirit as he circled around a few times while moving his head this way and that.

"To help you."

He jumped when the voice ghosted over his ear, but he couldn't pull away fast enough before she had wrapped a hand around his throat and the other around the crook in his hands.

She wasn't pressing hard, and he had a feeling that if she wanted to, she would have no trouble with crushing his windpipe. She also wasn't pulling the staff away, simply seeming satisfied that she had kept him from using it. He could feel the heat in her hands, the heat that was way too hot to be normal and made him keep still in fear of the idea of having the skin literally melted from his bones.

"Are you going to calm down?" Her voice was soft, as if she was talking to a child and not a three hundred year old winter spirit.

Unable to use his voice, Jack just nodded his head, his heart beating hard against his rib cage even after her hand had been removed.

Rubbing at his throat gingerly, he pointed his staff to the ground before turning to face the one who had rudely interrupted his visit to the Guardian of Knowledge.

He found himself shocked when he came face to face with what appeared to be a female version of Pitch. Her eyes were dark, and her skin was pale, sure, but the structure of her face couldn't have been anyone else. The long, dark hair that framed her face in wild waves and the sharpness in the eyes was familiar enough to make his mouth slip open as he stared at her. She was beautiful no doubt, but there was a reckless storm raging just beneath the calm surface that he was sure could be triggered by a slight breeze.

She was dangerous, and Jack didn't have to be told twice to not piss her off.

"How do you know my name?"

It was a simple question, one that he was hoping would be okay to ask her without having to worry about a raging heat trying to burn through him once more.

A smooth smile stretched over her lips as a breeze like chuckle emitted from her mouth.

"I know everything," she answered vaguely, waving her hand and disappearing in a breeze of mist before reappearing to his side. "Every conversation that the bees have to the best kept secrets of the dragons. I know what everyone and everything on this planet is doing the moment it happens. I hear everything, I see everything," she continued with a smirk as Jack moved himself back. "To not know who you are, Jack," she continued, moving forward and catching his chin in her hand, forcing him to look into her dark gaze, "would be nearly impossible."

Jack didn't realize that he wasn't breathing until she let him go and moved back as few steps. His bright blue eyes watched her move around the fury of clouds, her movements flawless, almost as if she wasn't walking at all, just floating.

"Okay," he muttered, trying hard to keep the annoyance out of his voice as he forced his body to relax. "Then who are you?"

At this she hummed, waving her hand and making at throne looking chair out of the clouds. He kept his thoughts to himself as she sat down in it, her one hand coming up for her chin to rest in and her other hand tapping idly on the smooth gray arm of the chair.

"I'm not going to lie, I'm a little disappointed," she said, leaving him baffled as his brows drew together to show his confusion. "We have worked together for years, after all, most seasonal spirits clue into who I am very quickly when I am in need of their attention."

"Um..." Jack tried to comb his brain with anything that he could think of that would give him any clue to who this woman was.

She didn't help him out at all, she just sat there with a blank look set about her features. He felt a trail of goose bumps crawl over his arms when a sharp smile came to her face.

"A little distract hm?" she asked, raising a single brow. "A certain little Fearling on your mind?"

"How did you..?"

"I told you," she interrupted harshly, forcing him to bite back on his tongue. "I know everything." With this, she got up from her chair and crossed her arms over her chest, a smirk on her face as she nearly seemed to grow twice in size. "You don't even have to go to the Protector of Knowledge," she nearly purred as her eyes narrowed at the white haired teen, "for I know where your little Hiccup is."

Jack felt his eyes go wide as his mouth fell open. This woman knew where Hiccup was? She knew where to find him? He'd only been hoping that the Knowledge Guardian would have been able to help him roughly pin point a location, and then he didn't know how long he would have to keep looking before he would really be able to find the boy. She already knew, though?

As excited as Jack was, he also found the information to be a little odd. Just as he started looking for Hiccup again, some random person pops out of the blue and says they know where he is?

"Forgive me if I'm a little skeptical," he said, his tone flat while his own gaze stared at her with his lack of belief in them.

"I have no doubt," she replied, her shoulders coming up in a light shrug. "When all you've ever known is being lied to and ignored, it's hard to believe in much."

"Who are you?" Jack asked again, his gaze narrowing despite the fear he could feel nudging the back of his mind.

"My name is Emily Jane," she said, finally giving a title to herself while Jack wondered if he'd ever heard the name before, "but you would know me as Mother Nature."

At hearing her proper title, Jack snapped his mouth shut as his eyes blew wide. Of course he knew about Mother Nature. Ever seasonal spirit knew of her, and he felt like kicking himself for not catching on to such obvious clues. Sure there were barely any spirits that had really seen her, but they all knew that she was always there. She was always watching with an air of indifference and a cold calculating eye. Never fearing to whip someone back in line or to kick start someone who was falling behind. She was both loved and feared by all, for they knew that no matter what or who had brought them back, they were truly her children and that she could end them just as quickly as they were her own if she wished.

Jack didn't know how to react other than to drop his gaze from her's. He'd heard that there were very few that were allowed to gaze at her as an equal. He highly doubted that he was one of them.

"Jack," she said, her hand coming down to cup his chin again and bring his gaze upward. "I'm not going to punish you," she reassured while a sharp smile pulled at the corner of her lips. "I want your help."

Both his brows were pushed upwards as he wonder what on earth he could help her with. There was very little that she wouldn't be able to do on her own, but he didn't dare question anything as she patted his cheek and pulled her hand away.

"What do you need me to do?" he asked, his voice almost a whisper now.

"What you want to do," she grinned, moving herself back to her throne as he pressed his lips tightly together, his head tilting to the side. "I want you to find Hiccup, and I want you to take him back from Pitch."

Turning his gaze to the side for a moment, Jack wondered why she would have stopped him if that was true. He had been on his way to find Hiccup - if she'd wanted him to find him so bad, why hadn't she told him earlier, or just let him continue on and let him do so on his own? What did she have to gain from showing herself to him to tell him to do what he'd already planned on doing?

"I'm sorry, I'm..."

"Confused?" she finished for him, a single brow raised to accompany her words. "Don't be."

Well that was easier said than done...

"Hiccup is my child," she continued, waving a hand to show the boy she was talking about, "he is an element spirit full of great potential, but Pitch has poisoned his mind and I'm afraid that even I can't do anything to change him back."

Jack found himself concentrating more on the image rather than her words. His eyes greedily taking in the form of the one he hadn't seen in so many years. If this is what Hiccup looked like now, he could already feel his heart breaking even more. He was so thin, he'd always been so, sure, but now his ribs were almost too easily seen, his bony shoulders even more so than they had been before. His lips were pulled back in a snarl, showing off a mouth of sharp pointed teeth. His beautiful green eyes that Jack never grew tired of staring into were now empty and completely black, no sign of human intelligence anywhere in them. His skin was an ashy gray, but even the hue of it didn't hide the long scars that littered his tiny form.

Jack narrowed his eyes as he took in some new features that the boy seemed to have too. He remembered the wings quite well. He remembered thinking how cool they were, but the tail that was was frozen in a mid thrashing movement was new.

Just what had happened to him?

As Jack reached out to touch the image, it vanished into nothing but a puff of mist the second his fingers grazed over it. Blinking himself out of his trance-like state, he turned to her and found himself mirroring the frown over her face.

"You were on your way to see Rapunzel." It was a statement, not a question, and she delivered it as such. "I'm sorry to say, but she will lead you wrong. She has a good heart but she will do what she thinks is best, and sadly Toothless' mind has been guarded against the help of others. You included, Jack, and she will respect that."

What? Toothless didn't want his help? Why? They'd always been good friends. Toothless had been happy to get him and Hiccup together the first time, why would he be against it now? Remembering what Mim had told him about Toothless being attacked by the ones he had trusted when he'd first gone for help, he couldn't hold it against him. He wouldn't be all that trusting, either.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he turned his attention back to Mother Nature and waited for her to continue.

"I need you to change him back, Jack. I know that you can do it - only you can do it," she said.

"Why?" Jack asked. "I'm going to do it," he added in, placing his staff against the ground and shoving his other hand in the pocket of his hood. "But I'm not doing it for you, I'm doing it for him. What are you going to get out of it?"

He hated the smile that came to her face not moments later.

"That's my business," she said softly. "Now you'll find your little Hiccup in the catacombs of Rome. Go to Via Appia Antica. They'll be on the outside of the city. Pitch allows him to wander on his own, and he'll have Toothless locked away again the moment that he gets back. I can create cover for you from Mim for a little while, and distract the other guards, but I have a feeling it might take awhile for him to warm up to you again." She snickered as Jack shook his head.

"I'm not..."

"Shh, Jack," she said, a strong hand clamping over his mouth as a twisted smirk made it's way over her features. In that moment, she looked almost exactly like Pitch. "You have to go now."

A scream tore passed his lips as the solid form underneath his feet disappeared and he free fell once more. This time, the heat wasn't there. This time, he managed to call on the winds to help keep him up. When he turned to look back up, he watched as the cloud spread out tenfold until it covered the sky as far as the eye could see.

He wasn't going to do this for her, or Mim, or even Toothless. He was doing this for Hiccup and he was going to make sure that no one used him for anything else. He would protect Hiccup. And he didn't need anyone to tell him how to do that.

**Winder:** Hey everyone. :) Sorry again about the long wait but I hope you enjoyed the chapter. :) **Frosticle:** Why thank you Hun. :) I'm glad that you're enjoying it. :) Sorry that it took so long to get up here for you but it always takes me awhile to write and than when I do I have to rewrite it normally about four or five times before I can come up with something good enough for my Beta. They do their job well sadly and I've had to fix a lot of things because of all the problems I didn't fix or ideas I didn't think through. XD **Nicolelovesray:** Why thank you. :) I was actually told by a few people that they had to stop reading after I killed Toothless in the first one which was to bad but I understood it so I understand that a lot of people were bummed when that happened. XD It was actually posted in October and the last update was in January or something I think but ya, it has been a long time since I updated and for that I apologize. ; **Amber:** Oo, I would have messaged you that it updated but I sadly can't contact anons users. :( Sorry Hun but I hope that you haven't given up on it! :D Thanks for reading! :) **AlexJohnD:** Don't worry, things will start looking up for Jack eventually. :) He should run into Hiccup in about the next chapter or two. :) I love the Hiccup/Jamie hate thing! XD I thought it would be even better to put in with Hiccup like this too so I can't wait to write it! :D **Hiccup Overland:** Ya pretty much but it should be way more intense now hopefully. :D It would be funny to see them all running away from him and Jack trying to stop him! XD Thanks bud! :D **Flame:** Ya I guess so eh? But Hiccup was originally mortal too but I have a feeling that if Jamie died it just wouldn't work out the same way eh? **TheFakeEarl:** Thanks! I hope I didn't disappoint with this chapter! I hope you enjoyed reading it. :) **Kigen Dawn:** A hint for Jamie's future; it has to do with that house they're all going to go to. ;) **Faisysh865:** Because people lived to have their hearts ripped out. ;)


	6. Chapter 6

Hiccup Nights Remember Me

Chapter 6

"Hiate, my little pet," Pitch purred as the Fearling let out an excited yowl at the sight of its master.

He held a hand out, a twisted smile coming to his face when the gray-skinned creature rubbed its head against his palm. What he wouldn't give for Jack to see this. If only the reckless winter spirit had joined him rather than the band of goodie-two-shoe do-gooders, he would have had his Hiccup back in no time.

"I trust your travels were fine?" he asked the much larger spirit that had stayed in the background, dark body nearly hidden seamlessly in the shadows.

He didn't get a response, not that he was ever expecting one, he always just thought it was funny to twist the knife a little bit more in the other's pride.

The silence between the three only seemed to intensify the cries of the other Fearlings and Nightmares that wandered around in the dark, and drew Hiate's attention. Pitch continued to run his fingers though the creature's hair, but he allowed it to dart off when the movement of a Fearling proved too much for it to resist anymore.

"I think it's time to put you back in your cage, hm?" Pitch grinned, raising his hand as the shadows covering the deep scar in the ground vanished and peeled away until the opening was visible once more.

The dragonoid kept a carefully blank face, but Pitch caught the smallest twitch of his lips and the glint of fear in his eyes. He could basically taste it in the air. Creatures of the sky were never meant to be locked underground. They were never meant to be trapped in cages that wouldn't allow them to stretch out their wings. They were never meant to be locked away forever in the darkness.

He was a little disappointed with the fact that Toothless didn't bother to fight against him. He'd always been hoping to get a bit of a rise out of the other, but it seemed that Toothless wasn't stupid enough to try and fight a losing battle. Without a word to him, Toothless stepped over the edge and fell into the darkness below.

Not waiting for him to change his mind, Pitch waved his hand and turned away as the opening sealed itself once more. He couldn't help but blink at what he'd turned around to see, though, as Hiate had one of his Fearlings pinned to the ground. The shadow was screaming in rage with Hiate's sharp teeth clamped down on the back of its neck, and a low growl spilling from the creatures chest. It looked like it was trying to tear out a chunk of the Fearling, and Pitch could only roll his eyes as he let out a long sigh.

"Hiate," he said, his voice alone enough to draw the others attention and make it let the creature go.

The Fearling darted off with a screech, it's movements followed by the gray-skinned male as its tail thrashed behind it in aggravation. Pitch just continued to watch as the small Fearling growled, the sound low and sharp, as its narrowed gaze continued to stare after its prey. It was obvious what was wrong with it.

Moving over to one of the openings of his home, Pitch glanced outside into the night. It was darker than normal. There were dark clouds stretching over the sky as far as he could see. So black and so thick that it blocked out the Moon entirely. It didn't seem like it was going to fade at any point in time, either.

"Go hunting, Hiate," Pitch muttered.

Hiate seemed to perk up at that, sitting upright as its tail pretty much wagged from behind it. Without so much as a happy yip, the creature was off, slicing through the opening of Pitch's lair and being lost in the darkness of the night.

Pitch could smell the sweets on him from the Protector of Knowledge, he could smell the faint traces of humans' darkest thoughts he got from Abyss as a treat, but Hiate was a Fearling. There was only one thing that would truly curve the craving that they all had. Although it seemed that, as of late, Hiate was only getting hungrier and hungrier. It was as if there was a craving that he had that couldn't be settled by fear. Pitch was going to have to figure it out soon, though. He couldn't use his weapon if it was broken.

(...)

"Via Appia Antica. Via Appia Antica. Catacombs of Rome near Via Appia Antica," Jack muttered to himself as he kept low to the ground and made his way around the houses and other buildings.

It would have been so much easier to do this if he could just fly and go straight there rather than all of this bee-lining that he was doing now, but he knew he couldn't do that. The last thing he wanted was for Pitch to see him from a mile away and to catch onto what was going on. He had to be sneaky. Which was something that apparently was easier said than done when he was so pale he stuck out like a sore thumb wherever he went.

Just as he was about to shoot himself around another corner, he quickly came to a halt and jerked himself back. Peering around the brick wall, he took in a deep breath. Floating not even ten feet away were a group of Fearlings. He'd seen these ones before. He'd seen these ones years and years ago when Hiccup had still been with him. They were the ones that Pitch had used to take over the Vikings and travelers in the north. They were the kind that had bitten Hiccup and poisoned him.

Wispy creatures, creatures made of shadows and mist. They held a true form, but they shifted so much that it was hard to pin down what it could have been. Unlike the Nightmares, these creatures couldn't be destroyed by just anyone or anything. In order to kill a Fearling, you would have to do it with a piece of the Moon, otherwise you would just go right through them.

They were old, though; lately he'd just seen the Nightmares that Pitch had made, the ones that looked like horses from hell. These were ones that weren't supposed to be here.

Pitch was supposed to have lost them all long ago. He'd used his last amount to create his Nightmares by mixing them with Sandy's dream sand, but he wasn't supposed to have any Fearlings left at all. If anything, Hiccup would have been his last Fearling.

Ducking back around the corner and out of sight, Jack flew down the alley and glanced around the corner at the other end. Thankfully, there were no Fearlings here, but he could still feel the hairs on the back of his neck as he continued on his way.

He was so close, and he refused to blow it. If they caught him now, then this would all be over. The Guardians would come, Mim would come, Hiccup would be killed, Pitch could end up killing Jack. He couldn't have that happen. He had to keep them both alive until he could come up with a full plan.

Being reminded about how much he was really winging this, forced him to swallow down the lump in his throat and press himself to continue. He would just have to handle this one at a time and see where the pieces fell, but he was so going to have to have a seat later and try to plan something. This wasn't going to end well it he went all 'Jack style battle plan' on this.

When he reached the outskirts of the city, a thought nagged at Jack's mind until it became a small ache.

How was he supposed to find Hiccup? Sure he knew where he was, but what if Hiccup wasn't alone? What if he was out with the other Fearlings? What if he was wondering around in the maze-like areas? How was he supposed to find the boy without being found out by one of the creatures first? They were crawling all over this place.

Jack was so lost in his thoughts that he nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the light clatter of some rocks being shifted. Jumping into action, he flew right over to the spot, expecting to see a Nightmare or a Fearling he was going to have to fight with before it could go running off to warn anyone. What he found instead, however, was a tiny animal that just skittered around the area as if it had been spooked.

Forcing himself to relax, Jack let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Leaving the animal behind, he continued on his way.

The closer he got, however, the more he couldn't shake off the feeling that something or someone was following him. The feeling made goose bumps appear across his chilled skin and the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Maybe it wasn't him just being paranoid. Maybe it was one of Pitch's Fearlings or Nightmares following him. It could be Pitch himself, or worse yet, it could be one of Mim's lookouts.

Not able to take it anymore, Jack spied a cluster of rocks and quickly darted over to it. Wasting no time, he quickly hid himself and waited. If someone really was following him, then he had no doubt that they would come looking for him, then he'd know for sure. He could see who it was, give them the slip or attack depending on who they were, and then he could continue with his mission.

What ended up coming around the corner wasn't something he was prepared for.

His breath caught in his throat, his mouth going dry as his palms grew sweaty, and his heart hammered in his chest.

Crawling over the rocks only a few feet away was Hiccup.

The boy he hadn't been able to see in over two hundred years was right in front of him. The one he'd been looking for, the one he dreamed about every night, the one that he begged day after day to be able to see was right there. Hiccup was so close. He was sniffing the air, his dark eyes glancing around the area for a moment before he was back to smelling the ground.

His eyes were so dark, but they still had a spark in them. Jack watched as the powerful tail behind him swayed lazily from one side to the other while his wings shook every so often, itching to be opened and take to the sky. Jack could hear his nails, which he noticed were more like claws, make a soft clinking noise every time they hit the surface of stone.

Every cell in his being wanted to jump up and trap the boy in his arms, and never let him go. But with every move Hiccup made, every low hiss and animal-like inhale, he knew there was no way that Hiccup would have appreciated his enthusiasm. If he wanted this to work, he was going to have to take it slow. Hiccup was just as wild as the dragons that he use to train, and just as strong too. If Jack made the wrong move, then it could end up being game over.

With that thought in mind, Jack slowly moved out of his hiding place.

Hiccup's head was quick to snap up, his body moved even lower to the ground and his gaze narrowed as his body became as still as a stone. Jack forced himself to stay calm as he carefully raised his hands and sat down on one of the many stones.

There were so many things that he wanted to do. He wanted to laugh so hard that his stomach would hurt for hours. He wanted to cry his eyes out, he didn't even know if it would have been from joy or sadness. He wanted to open his mouth and tell Hiccup everything that had happened since they'd last seen each other, but anything he could have said stay stuck in his head. Hiccup was right there, right in front of him after so many years of isolation, and all Jack could do was sit and wait to see what Hiccup would decide to do with him.

At his stillness, the boy seemed a little put-off. Breaking his own stillness, he did nothing more than pacing back and forth, as his eyes never once left the pale face of his lover he didn't remember. The lazy swaying of his tail stopped, turning to thrashing almost violently as low growls and sharp hisses rumbled from his chest. Jack almost found it a little cute, Hiccup didn't seem to know what to make of someone if they weren't threatening him.

The reminder about how many people wanted to see the boy gone brought Jack back to attention as he ever so slowly lowered his hands down beside him. As he did that, Hiccup let out a small screech, his wings opening wide and making him seem ten times larger than he really was. Jack didn't let it faze him, though; instead, he made himself seem bored while he created a little flurry of snowflakes.

At the sight of the little white flakes, Hiccup's whole attitude seemed to change. His mouth snapped shut and his eyes lost the malice in them. His wings folded back in as he tilted his head and gazed at the snow. Jack couldn't stop the smile from pulling at his lips when the boy raised a clawed hand and swiped at the snowflakes, letting out a happy coo when they ducked his hands and continued to swirl into the wind.

This wasn't what he'd expected their first meeting to be like, but Hiccup was here and that's all that he needed right now. To know that the boy really was still out there, and not just some imaginary thing that he had come up with.

Jack felt his smile slip down into open mouthed shock while Hiccup moved around, and the sight of something familiar slid from the back of his neck to the front. Moving slowly back and forth, as if to hypnotist whoever would gaze at it, was Heart. The half spear-shaped pendent moved with every movement the boy made, occasionally bouncing against his chest that only seemed to make it glow brighter against the ash-colored skin.

He couldn't believe that after all of these years, after he'd been taken by Pitch, Hiccup still had that. As the boy continued to chase after the shrinking number of snowflakes, Jack reached inside his hood and pulled out the missing half of the boy's pendent.

His movement caught Hiccup's attention again as he stopped in his playful pursuit of the cold ice and snapped back to hiss a warning at Jack. Even so, Jack didn't stop, only slowed down a little until the top half of the pendent was visible. Just seeing that part of it alone made the dark haired male stop as his eyes narrowed and his body seemed to stiffen.

"Do you remember this, Hic?" Jack muttered, the words being hard to push out of his dry mouth.

Finally dropping the item gently against his own chest, he watched at the boy's sharp gaze softened, if only the slightest. Licking his dry lips, Jack tried again.

"Do you remember when I made this for you?" he asked, his words making Hiccup tilt his head to the side as he drew in a little bit closer. "I can't believe you still have it, to be honest." Jack chuckled, the sound seeming a little forced. "I thought that someone would have taken it from you, or that you would have gotten rid of it."

Could Hiccup even understand him? He didn't seem like he was understanding too much, but he was getting closer, and that was all Jack could ask for at this point.

When he got in a little bit closer, Jack raised a hand out to him. The moment he did, though, he regretted it. The boy let out a screech loud enough to force him to cover his ears, and with one beat of his wings, he'd shot himself a few feet back and into the air.

Scrambling to his feet, Jack didn't know what to do as he left his staff on the ground. His heart was hammering in his chest, he didn't want Hiccup to leave now. Not after he'd just managed to find him after all of these years. Hiccup couldn't go!

"Wait! I'm sorry!" he shouted, the volume of his voice only seeming to upset the other further as he moved in closer, this time with the intent to attack.

Not having any time to think about it, Jack kicked his staff up to his hand and just managed to block the attack that was meant for his shoulder, almost all too easily deflecting it. There was no way that he was going to attack Hiccup, but the boy wasn't in his right mind, either, and Jack wasn't about to let himself be killed by him.

"Hiccup! Hiccup, wait, it's me!" Jack gasped out, blocking every attack that was being thrown at him, if only barely.

Kicking off the ground, Jack just managed to get into the sky just as a powerful current of blue lighting landed at a rock that was just before the one he'd been perched on. The rock was left smoking, painted pure black from the scorch marks as Hiccup snarled after him. This wasn't going to get him anywhere.

Deciding to change tactics, Jack charged himself at the other just as Hiccup was flying upward to meet him. They slammed together hard, and Jack kept a good grip on him as they hurtled towards the ground. Hiccup let out a yowl of pain when he was slammed to the ground, and the sound broke Jack's heart, but he wasted no time in grabbing the boy's wrists and pinning them down to his chest.

"Hiccup. Hiccup, listen. I know that you don't remember me, and that you probably can't understand me, but it's me, it's Jack," Jack tried, pleading with the boy to remember who he was.

The only thing Hiccup did was growl, his sharp teeth only inches away from his face as he squirmed and tried to escape the hold that Jack had on him.

Not knowing what to do, Jack just dropped his head on the boy's chest, his breath hitching as he screwed his eyes shut to fight back against the tears that threatened to spill out.

This hurt. It really, really hurt. Hiccup didn't remember him, at all. He was finally with the boy of his dreams, and Hiccup didn't have a clue who he was. He hated him, hate him enough to attack him, just like he'd attacked the council after Toothless had gotten hu...

Jack's thoughts came to a stop. He'd seen the aftermath of what Hiccup could do. He saw with his own two eyes what he was capable of. Mim had told Jack that Hiccup laid waste to his place in mere minutes. If Hiccup wanted Jack dead, it would only be too easy for him. So why hadn't he? Why was he allowing Jack to keep him pinned like this, when killing him should have been as simple as slapping a mosquito that had already landed on you?

Lifting his head, he quickly wiped at his eyes. Looking down at the boy, he saw that Hiccup was frowning now, his lips pressed into a tight line, and he looked pissed, but he still wasn't killing Jack. Once more, Jack moved slowly, bringing himself to sit upright, releasing Hiccup's hands.

"You can't kill me... Can you?" he muttered, his voice low as his bright blue gaze stared wide-eyed down at the boy.

Hiccup only seemed to huff, his wings shifting under him in discomfort while his cheeks puffed up. He really couldn't, there was something in him that wouldn't allow him to kill Jack.

"You do remember me," Jack said, earning himself a head tilt from the other as a giddiness overcame him. "You remember me!" Jack exclaimed, bringing his hands up on either said of the boy's face as he spoke. "Maybe not everything about me, or even at all, but you can't kill me, because you know there's something that connects us together," Jack explained, whether he was telling this to Hiccup or just speaking out loud, he didn't know, but he also didn't really care at this point.

Without giving it too much thought, Jack leaned down and pressed his lips quickly against the boy's forehead.

"Thank you, Hiccup. Thank you, thank you," Jack muttered, laying kisses to every inch of the boy's face.

The gray-skinned male let out something close to a whine, making Jack chuckle, but he still didn't throw Jack off or electrocute him.

"Don't worry, Hic, you'll remember everything soon. I promise, I'm going to help you," he said. His heart swelled as he lightly pressed their foreheads together and stared into the dark eyed gaze. "I'm going to help you."

Getting off of the boy, Hiccup wasted no time in taking to the air again. Jack couldn't wipe the large smile off of his face as he watched the boy dart in the direction he'd been heading in before he stopped. Jack felt his breath being taken away when the boy turned to look at him. He let out a small yipping noise before he took off again.

He remembered him. Hiccup actually remembered him.

**Winder:** Hey guys! Thanks for everyone who's continued to read this even with the huge update gaps ; Love you all! Thanks to **Twilight** who is an amazing beta reader and is always helping make this story better. :) **AlexJohnD:** I know right! XD I love writing Hiccup like this it's just so much fun! XD You'll see what she's up to later don't worry. ;) I hope their meeting didn't disappoint you. :) **Nicolelovesray:** Ya I know I have a terrible update thing. :P Sometimes it takes a long time. ; Sorry about that. I hope you enjoyed this one Hun. :) **TheFakeEarl:** Merida is just a spirit that stumbled upon Punz's tower and just stayed there. :) You'll find out more about her later don't worry. :) Aw thank you! XD That's so sweet! :D **faisyah865:** Now what makes you say that? :) You're right though, he should be careful. :) **Kigen Dawn:** Bwaha yes, I just couldn't leave little Jamie with a broken heart and no one to fix it, that would just be cruel. :) Tut tut, I can't tell ya her intentions just yet. ;P


End file.
